IC-NRLF 


3DE 


GIFT  Of 
W.   H.    Ivie 


THE 


CENTENARY 


AMERICAN  METHODISM 

A  SKETCH  OF  ITS  HISTORY,  THEOLOGY,  PRACTICAL 
SYSTEM,  AND  SUCCESS. 


PEEPAEED  BY  OEDEE  OF  THE  CENTENAEY  COMMITTEE 

OF  THE  GENEEAL  CONFEEENCE  OF  THE 

METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHUECH. 


BY    ABEL    STEVEN'S,    LL.D. 


WITH  A  STATEMENT   OP   THE    PLAN    OP    THE    CENTENARY    CELEBRATION 
OP  1866, 

BY  JOHN  M'CLINTOCK,  D.D. 


Jfeto   Ijork: 

PUBLISHED  BY  CARLTON  &  PORTER, 

200    MULBERRY-STREET. 
1866. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1865,  by 
CARLTON    &   PORTER, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 
Southern  District  of  New  York. 


SIFT  OF 
V      \vi.e. 


DEDICATORY   PREFACE. 


OLIVER  HOYT,  ESQ. 

MY  DEAR  SIR: — Aside  from  our  personal  friendship  and  those  dis 
tinguished  services  which  have  connected  your  name  with  some  of  the 
most  important  interests  of  the  Church,  I  deem  it  proper  to  submit 
this  work  to  you  as  the  author  of  the  resolution,  in  the  Cleveland 
meeting  of  the  Centenary  Committee,  appointing  me  to  "prepare  a 
centenary  volume,  setting  forth  such  facts  and  showings  as  should 
properly  come  within  the  scope  of  such  a  work;"  and  the  Rev.  Dr. 
M'Clintock,  "to  co-operate"  with  me  "by  adding  a  chapter  embody 
ing  the  action  of  the  Centenary  Committee,  and  reflecting  the  spirit 
which  pervaded  its  discussions." 

The  Committee  were  doubtless  determined,  in  their  choice  of  a 
writer  of  the  proposed  book,  by  the  fact  that  it  has  been  my  task  foi 
a  number  of  years  to  prepare  for  the  denomination  a  "  History  of  the 
Religious  Movement  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  called  Methodism," 
etc.,  and  "The  History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America."  In  the  familiarity  with  the  historical 
facts  of  Methodism  which  these  writings  have  afforded  me,  I  have 
found,  however,  my  chief  difficulty  in  preparing  the  present  volume. 
There  is  so  much  that  is  heroic,  and  even  romantic,  in  the  early  his 
tory  of  Methodism,  that  a  writer,  in  whose  mind  such  data  are  fresh 
and  vivid,  must  be  perplexed  to  know  where  to  stop,  what  to  record, 
or,  at  least,  what  to  omit.  Unless  he  would  risk  the  design  of  his 
work,  by  its  magnitude  and  consequent  high  price,  he  must,  with 
whatever  reluctance,  omit  names  sacredly  memorable,  and  incidents 
as  marvelous  as  any  in  modern  religious  history.  I  have  been  able  to 
relieve  myself  from  this  embarrassment  at  last  only  by  binding  myself 
rigidly  to  the  practical  design  of  the  volume :  to  the  preparation  of 
such  a  brief  yet  comprehensive  exhibit  of  Methodism  as  might  most 
directly  promote  the  purposes  of  the  Centenary  Celebration,  by  show 
ing  the  true  character  and  claims  of  the  Church,  and  by  setting  them 


4  PEEFACE. 

forth  in  such  manner  that  they  shall  be  intelligible  to  the  most  unin 
formed  reader.  As  stated  in  the  Introduction,  I  have  also  avoided,  as 
much  as  possible,  except  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  volume,  any  merely 
didactic  treatment  of  its  subjects,  but  have  studied  to  give  it  through 
out  popular  attraction  and  effect,  by  historical  facts  and  style.  The 
first  three  chapters,  however,  are  alone  in  purely  narrative  or  chrono 
logical  form,  and  are  such  only  so  far  as  the  founding  of  Methodism 
in  England  and  America  is  concerned,  or  as  they  can  best  answer 
historically  the  question,  What  is  Methodism  ?  by  showing  its  evan 
gelical  stand-point.  This  chronological  narrative  could  not  be  further 
extended  without  making  the  work  too  large ;  and  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  it  is  the  founding  of  Methodism  that  is  to  be  celebrated  in 
the  Centenary  Jubilee.  Its  subsequent  results  are  classified  and  em 
bodied  in  other  chapters.  It  would  seem  desirable  that  the  good  and, 
in  many  instances,  truly  great  men  who  have  built  up  the  denomina 
tion  during  its  first  century,  should  have  some  record  in  the  volume, 
but  this  is  obviously  impossible ;  they  have  their  place  in  its  history, 
but  this  is  not  its  history. 

I  indulge  the  hope  that  you,  and  other  readers,  who  have  followed 
me  through  my  larger  works  on  Methodism,  will  not  find  this  more 
compendious  and  more  classified  review  of  its  first  century  in  America 
uninteresting,  though  it  must  necessarily  be,  to  a  great  extent,  a  repeti 
tion  of  my  former  data,  and  in  some  instances,  with  but  slight  modifi 
cations  of  style.  The  similar  books,  officially  published  by  different 
branches  of  the  denomination  at  its  General  Centenary  in  1839,  have 
been  retained  as  manuals  in  their  literature.  I  have  endeavored  to 
secure  to  the  present  volume  the  same  advantage,  by  so  presenting 
the  history  and  official  statistics  of  the  various  institutions  and  inter 
ests  of  the  Church  as  to  make  the  book  a  permanent  standard  for 
reference,  affording,  in  the  most  convenient  form,  the  chief  data  which 
may  be  needed  by  writers,  preachers,  or  others,  respecting  its  his 
tory,  theology,  discipline,  literature,  education,  missions,  Sunday- 
schools,  etc. 

I  shall  always  consider  it  no  small  honor  to  have  co-operated,  how 
ever  slightly,  with  you  and  your  colleagues  of  the  Centenary  Com 
mittee  in  the  onerous  labors  with  which  you  have  been  preparing  the 
Church  for  its  approaching  festival,  an  occasion  which  I  doubt  not 
will  be  rendered  forever  memorable. 

Respectfully, 

ABEL  STEVENS. 

MAMABONECK  PARSONAGE,  Oct.,  1865. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION .Page    9 

PAET  I. 

WHAT   IS   METHODISM?— THE    QUESTION   HISTORIC 
ALLY  ANSWERED. 


CHAPTEE  I. 


Page 


ITS    ORIGIN,    FOUNDERS,    AND    EARLY 
PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND. 

Its  Historical  Stand-point 11 

Sketches  of  John  and  Charles. . 

Wesley 11 

Susannah  "Wesley 11 

Studies  and  Eeligious  Inquiries 

of  the  Wcsleys 13 

John  Wesley's  Charities 20 

Sketch  of  Whitefield 21 

Conversion  of  the  Wesleys 25 

Peter  Boehler 31 

Luther  on  Faith 33 

Beginning  of  the  Methodist  Mis 
sion 38 

Eeligious  Condition  of  England .  43 

Eemarkable  Scenes 48 

Lay  Preachers 51 

The  first  Society 52 

Persecutions 53 

Whitefield  in  America 55 

Eesults 57 

CHAPTEE  II. 

ORIGIN,  FOUNDERS,  AND  PROGRESS  IN 
AMERICA. 

The  Irish  Palatines 64 

Philip  Embury 66 

Methodism  in  New  York 69 

Barbara  Heck 69 

Captain  Webb 70 

Outspread  of  Methodism 75 


Eobert  Strawbridge 77 

Early  Local  Preachers 79 

CHAPTEE  III. 

EARLY  EVANGELISTS. 

Eobert  Williams 88 

John  King 87 

Boardman  and  Pilmoor 89 

Wright  and  Asbury 90 

Asbury's  Character 91 

Eankin  and  Shadford 95 

Other  Preachers 96 

The  Eevolutionary  War 96 

CHAPTEE  IV. 

RAPID   PROGRESS. 

Methodism  in  the  West 102 

102 
103 
103 
..  104 
..  105 
.  10G 


Episcopal  Organization . 
Methodism  in  New  England. . 

In  Canada 

Its  Native  Ministry 

Subsequent  Progress 

Eemarkable  Statistics 


Comparative  Strength  in  differ 
ent  parts  of  the  Country 107 

CHAPTEE  V. 

ITS   PRACTICAL    SYSTEM. 

"  The  United  Society  " 109 

The  "  Class  Meeting  " 109 

"General  Eules" 109 

Church  Officers 110 

Circuits,  Districts,  Conferences.  Ill 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Vigor  of  its  System 113 

Its  Origin  and  Development. .  114 
Lay  [Representation , .  120 

CHAPTER  VI. 


ITS   DOCTRINAL   SYSTEM. 


Articles  of  Religion. 
Arminianism . . . 


125 

127 


Witness  of  the  Spirit 128 

Christian  Perfection 130 

Catholicity  of  Methodism 134 

Examples  of  Wesley's  Liber 
ality  139 

Scientific  Theology 140 

Watson  and  Warren 140 

Relative  Position  of  Methodist 
Theology 140 


PAET   II. 

WHAT  HAS  METHODISM  ACHIEVED  ENTITLING  IT  TO 
THE  PROPOSED  COMMEMORATION? 


CHAPTER  I. 

ITS    SPECIAL    ADAPTATION    AND    USE 
FULNESS   TO   THE   OOUNTBY. 

Great  Growth  of  Population. . .  147 
The  Methodist  Itinerancy  nec 
essary    to    meet    the   Moral 

Wants  of  the  Country 148 

Its  Remarkable  Results 150 

Its  Relative  Success 152 

CHAPTER  II. 

ITS  LABORS  IN  THE  DIFFUSION  OF  LIT 
ERATURE. 

Wesley's  Literary  Services 155 

Origin  of  the  Methodist  Book 

Concern 157 

Its  History 157 

Its  present  Magnitude 160 

Its  Usefulness 161 

CHAPTER  III. 

ITS  EDUCATIONAL   LABORS. 

First  Methodist  School 163 

Wesleyan  Educational  Efforts.  164 

Theological  Schools 165 

Early  Educational  Efforts  in 

America 165 

Asbury  misrepresented 166 

History  of  Education  in  the 

Church 167 

Results— Statistics 170 

CHAPTER  IV. 

ITS   SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ENTERPRISE. 

Early  Methodism  and  Sunday- 


Schools  , 


171 


Wesley  adopts  the  Institution.  172 
Asbury     introduces     it     into 

America 173 

History  of  the  Methodist  Sun 
day-School  Union 175 

Its  great  Success 176 

Results— Statistics 176 

CHAPTER  V. 

ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS. 

Early  Methodism  and  Missions  180 

Bishop  Coke  and  Missions 181 

Great  Success 184 

History  of  Methodist  Mission 
ary  Society 187 

Foreign  Missions 191 

German  Methodism 196 

Present  Condition  of  Methodist 

Missions 198 

Results — Statistics 198 

CHAPTER  VI. 

ITS    LOYALTY    AND    PATRIOTIC    SERV 
ICES. 

Wesley  and  the  Revolution. . .  201 

His  change  of  Opinion 201 

His  Letter  to  British  Cabinet 

Ministers 201 

Methodist  E.  Church  first  rec 
ognizes  the  New  Government  203 
Important  change  of  its  Article  203 
Methodism  asserts  the  National 

Sovereignty 203 

Address  to  Washington 205 

His  Reply 207 

The  Antislavery  Controversy. .  208 


CONTENTS. 


New  York  East  Conference 209 

Services  in  the  War 209 

President  Lincoln's  Testimony  210 

CHAPTER  VII. 

SUMMARY  VIEW. 

Great  Numerical  Growth 213 

Statistics  of  the  M.E.  Church.  213 

Membership  and  Ministry 218 

Educational  Institutions 213 


Church  Property 218 

Book  Concern 214 

Sunday-School  Union 214 

Missions 214 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

South 214 

Aggregate 215 

Other  Methodist  Bodies 215 

General  Aggregate 216 

Bishop  Janes  on  the  Actual 

State  of  Methodism 217 


PAET  III. 

ITS  CAPABILITIES  AND  RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE 
FUTURE. 


Its  "Wealth 225 

Demands  upon  it 225 

Prospective  Population  of  the 

Country 226 

Area  of  the  Republic 229 

Educational  Kesponsibilities..  230 
Proportion  of  Juvenile  Popula 
tion  230 

Ministerial  Education 232 


Church  Architecture 233 

Keligious  Art 234 

Eeunion  of  Methodist  Bodies.  236 
Church  Care  of  its  Children..  238 

Significant  Statistics 238 

Pastoral  Care  of  Children 239 

Spiritual  Mission  of  Method 
ism 241 

The  Centenary  Memorial 242 


CENTENARY 


AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  American  Methodists  propose  to  celebrate,  in 
the  year  1866,  the  completion  of  the  first  great  cycle 
of  their  history,  its  centenary  jubilee.  From  Maine 
to  California,  from  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
they  will  assemble  in  their  churches  for  religious 
ceremonies  and  pecuniary  offerings.  "What  enti 
tles  Methodism  to  this  solemn,  this  national  com 
memoration  ? 

In  answering  this  question  it  is  proposed  to  show : 

First,  "What  is  Methodism. 

Second,  "What  it  has  achieved  that  commends  it  to 
such  general  and  grateful  recognition. 

Third,  What  are  its  capabilities  for  the  future,  and 
the  consequent  responsibilities  of  its  people. 

It  is  not  designed  to  discuss  these  propositions  in 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

the  way  of  dissertation,  but,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
a  historical  form  such  as  shall  present  the  general 
Gcope  of  Methodism,  as  a  historical,  a  doctrinal, 
and  a  practical  system;  so  that  the  inquirer,  who 
c^y  have  herfcto&Kra  given  it  no  studious  attention, 
shall  be  able  to  appreciate  its  real  character  and 
claims. 


PART  I. 

WHAT  IS  METHODISM? 


CHAPTEE  I. 

ITS  ORIGIN,  FOUNDERS,   AND  EARLY  PROGRESS  IN 
ENGLAND. 

METHODISM  lias  been  described  as  "a  revival 
Church  in  its  spirit,  a  missionary  Church  in  its 
organization;"  a  resuscitation  of  the  spiritual  life 
and  practical  aims  of  primitive  Christianity.  This 
is  its  genuine  standpoint,  the  only  one  from  which 
its  history  and  its  theological  and  practical  systems 
can  be  interpreted.  It  is  implied  not  only  in  the 
characteristic  features  of  its  progress,  doctrines,  and 
economy,  but  in  the  individual  history  of  its  founders 
and  other  principal  agents. 

John  "Wesley,  its  chief  apostle  and  legislator,  was 
born  June  14,  1703,  in  the  Ep worth  Rectory,  Lin 
colnshire,  England.  Charles  Wesley,  one  of  its 
ablest  preachers,  and  the  author  of  its  Psalmody, 
now  its  virtual  liturgy  throughout  the  world,  was 
born  there,  December  18,  1T08.  Susanna  Wesley, 
their  mother,  who  has  been  called  "the  real  found- 


12  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ress  of  Methodism,"  was  distinguished  by  her  rare 
intellect,  her  piety,  and  her  domestic  management. 
Her  system  of  household  education  has  been  the 
wonder,  if  not  the  admiration,  of  most  historical 
writers  on  Methodism.  It  was  her  custom  to  retire 
with  each  of  her  children  once  a  week,  for  religious 
conversation  and  prayer.  She  has  recorded  that,  on 
these  occasions  of  devout  self-recollection,  she  felt 
a  peculiar  solicitude  for  her  most  celebrated  child. 
When  not  yet  seven  years  old  he  had  providentially 
been  saved  from  a  terrible  death.  The  rectory  was 
burned  down  at  night ;  all  its  inmates,  except  John, 
had  escaped,  but  he  was  sleeping  in  a  room  which 
the  flames  rendered  inaccessible.  The  rector  and  his 
family  knelt  on  the  ground,  in  the  light  of  their 
burning  home,  and  committed  the  soul  of  the  child 
to  God,  when  suddenly  he  appeared  at  the  window  of 
his  chamber.  A  peasant,  mounting  on  the  shoulders 
of  another,  rescued  him  at  the  instant  that  the  roof 
fell  in ;  two  minutes  of  delay  would  have  deprived 
the  history  of  the  world  of  the  name  and  achieve 
ments  of  its  most  remarkable  modern  religious  char 
acter.  "I  do  intend,"  said  his  grateful  mother,  in 
one  of  the  recorded  meditations  of  her  weekly  retire 
ment  and  prayer  with  him,  "I  do  intend  to  be 
more  particularly  careful  of  the  soul  of  this  child 
that  thou  hast  so  mercifully  provided  for,  than 
ever  I  have  been,  that  I  may  do  my  endeavor  to 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IX  ENGLAND.  13 

instill  into  his  mind  the  principles  of  true  religion 
and  virtue.  Lord,  give  me  grace  to  do  it  sincerely 
and  prudently,  and  bless  my  attempt  with  good 
success."  y 

In  advanced  life  John  "Wesley  recorded  the  admira 
tion  with  which  he  recalled  this  faithful  mother ;  the 
skill  with  which  she  managed,  with  little  assistance, 
and  in  no  little  poverty,  the  daily  affairs  of  her  family y 
comprising  thirteen  children,  all  of  whom,  that  at 
tained  responsible  years,  became  devoted  Christians, 
and  "  died  in  the  Lord ; "  her  household  school, 
commenced  daily  with  singing  and  prayer,  and  con 
ducted  solely  by  herself  with  academic  regularity; 
her  devotion  as  family  priestess  to  religious  duties ; 
her  daily  evening  hour  of  retired  prayer  and  con 
verse  with  her  children  severally;  the  prudence 
and  zeal  with  which  she  conducted  in  the  absence 
of  her  husband  a  sort  of  Sunday  public  worship, 
in  the  rectory,  for  the  villagers  as  well  as  her 
family. 

It  was  inevitable  that  such  a  training  should  have 
impressed,  for  life,  the  minds  of  such  men  as  the  two 
Wesleys.  They  bore  from  the  rectory  tendencies 
which  the  world  could  never  reverse.  John  left  the 
home  for  the  Charterhouse  School,  London,  when 
eleven  years  old,  and  entered  Oxford  University  in 
his  seventeenth  year.  Charles  went  to  the  Westmin 
ster  school  when  about  eight  years  of  age,  and  in  due 


14:  CENTENAKY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

time  joined  his  brother  at  Oxford.  Their  vigilant 
mother  maintained  a  frequent  correspondence  with 
them.  "  Now,"  she  wrote,  "  in  good  earnest,  resolve 
to  make  religion  the  business  of  your  life ;  for,  after 
all,  that  is  the  one  thing  that,  strictly  speaking,  is 
necessary.  All  things  besides  are  comparatively 
little  to  the  purposes  of  life.  I  heartily  wish  you 
would  now  enter  upon  a  strict  examination  of  your 
self,  that  you  may  know  whether  you  have  a  reason 
able  hope  of  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ.  If  you  have, 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  it  will  abundantly  reward 
your  pains;  if  you  have  not,  you  will  find  a  more 
reasonable  occasion  for  tears  than  can  be  met  with 
in  any  tragedy."  And  now  the  influence  of  the 
saintly  example  and  instructions  of  this  extraordinary 
woman  was  made  manifest,  not  only  in  the  upright 
ness  of  the  general  moral  conduct  of  her  sons,  and 
their  success  in  study  and  collegiate  honors,  but  in 
their  extraordinary  spirit  of  religious  inquiry  and 
devotion.  John  was  the  first  to  reveal  this  effect ; 
but  his  conversations  with  his  brother  soon  awoke  a 
responsive  sympathy  in  the  heart  of  the  latter.  They 
perceived  that  the  religious  life  is  the  supreme  in 
terest  of  man,  that  all  else  should  be  subordinated  to 
this,  and  that  without  it  human  life  must  be  a  failure, 
the  saddest  of  problems,  nay,  a  mixed  farce  and 
tragedy.  They  perceived  further,  not  in  uncharita- 
bleness,  but  deep  self-abasement,  that  the  habitual 


EAKLY  PEOGKESS  IN  ENGLAND.  15 

Christian  life  of  their  country,  as  well  as  of  them 
selves,  was  generally,  if  not  universally,  incompatible 
with  the  standard  of  spiritual  life  prescribed  by 
Christianity  and  exemplified  by  the  original  Church. 
In  fine,  the  very  genius  of  Methodism,  as  not  an 
ecclesiastical,  nor  a  theological,  but  a  vital  and  prac 
tical  system,  was  foretokened  in  the  moral  history  of 
these  young  and  earnest  inquirers. 

John  gave  himself  to  the  best  religious  reading  he 
could  command.  Three  authors  became  now  his 
habitual  companions,  next  to  his  Greek  Testament. 
Bishop  Taylor's  "  Holy  Living  and  Dying,"  Kempis's 
"  Imitation,"  and  Law's  "  Serious  Call "  and 
"  Christian  Perfection,"  agreed  with  those  convic 
tions  of  the  thoroughness  and  sanctity  of  the  Chris 
tian  life,  which  had  struck  into  his  inmost  con 
sciousness  ;  but  these  three  most  remarkable  writers, 
perhaps,  since  the  apostolic  age,  on  Spiritual  Chris 
tianity,  failed  in  an  essential  point.  They  delineated 
accurately  a  genuine  spiritual  life,  but  did  not 
show  the  requisite  means  of  its  attainment.  "  They 
preserve  a  complete  silence,"  says  a  good  authority, 
"respecting  the  faith  by  which  the  conscience  is 
purged  from  dead  works,  and  the  very  thoughts  of 
the  heart  are  made  pure,  and  therefore  leave  the 
reader  in  the  hopeless  attempt  to  practice  Christian 
holiness  while  he  is  under  the  power  of  sin.  He  is 
required  to  love  God  with  all  his  heart,  but  ho 


16  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

receives  no  information  concerning  the  manner  in 
which  he  is  to  be  saved  from  the  condemnation  to 
which  he  is  liable  on  account  of  his  past  sins,  and 
the  carnal  mind  which  is  enmity  against  God."  In 
fine,  the  great  Pauline  doctrine  of  "Justification  by 
Faith,"  which  was  the  most  potential  truth  of  prim 
itive  Christianity,  and  by  which  Luther  restored 
apostolic  life  to  the  Church,  was  generally  inert,  if 
not  practically  ignored,  in  the  English  Church  of  the 
day.  The  "Wesleys  were  now,  and  for  some  years, 
feeling  after  it  as  in  the  dark ;  they  were  to  find  it  at 
last,  find  it  by  the  help  of  Luther,  its  great  restorer, 
and  with  it  begin  the  "  Religious  movement  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  called  Methodism." 

The  history  of  their  inner  life,  at  this  time,  is 
an  exceedingly  interesting  study,  and  is  import 
ant  as  a  preliminary  and  an  exponent  of  their 
subsequent  public  life  as  founders  of  Methodism. 
Bishop  Taylor's  teachings  respecting  purity  of  mo 
tive,  deeply  impressed  the  mind  of  John  Wesley. 
"  Instantly,"  he  says,  "  I  resolved  to  dedicate  all  my 
life  to  God,  all  my  thoughts  and  words  and  actions, 
being  thoroughly  convinced  that  there  is  no  medium ; 
that  not  only  a  part  but  the  whole  must  be  a  sacrifice 
to  God  or  to  myself,  that  is,  in  effect,  to  the  devil." 
This  became  the  characteristic  maxim  of  his  whole 
subsequent  life.  He  could  not  accept  some  of  Tay 
lor's  sentiments,  and  his  dissent  led  him  more  defini- 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  17 

tively  to  doctrines  wliicli  were  to  be  vital  in  tlie 
theology  of  Methodism.  The  bishop,  like  most  re 
ligious  teachers  of  his  day,  denied  that  the  Christian, 
could  usually  be  sure  of  his  acceptance  with  God. 
Wesley  replied :  "If  we  dwell  in  Christ  and  Christ 
in  us,  which  he  will  not  do  unless  we  are  regenerate, 
certainly  we  must  be  sensible  of  it.  If  we  can  never 
have  any  certainty  of  our  being  in  a  state  of  salva 
tion,  good  reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should  be 
spent,  not  in  joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembling;  and 
then,  undoubtedly,  in  this  life  we  are  of  all  men 
most  miserable.  God  deliver  us  from  such  a  fearful 
expectation  !  Humility  is,  undoubtedly,  necessary 
to  salvation ;  and  if  all  these  things  are  essential  to 
humility,  who  can  be  humble,  who  can  be  saved  ? 
That  awe  can  never  be  so  certain  of  the  pardon  of  our 
sins  as  to  be  assured  they  will  never  rise  up  against 
us,  I  firmly  believe.  We  know  that  they  will  infalli 
bly  do  so,  if  we  apostatize ;  and  I  am  not  satisfied 
what  evidence  there  can  be  of  our  final  perseverance, 
till  we  have  finished  our  course.  But  I  am  persuaded 
we  may  know  if  we  are  now  in  a  state  of  salvation, 
since  that  is  expressly  promised  in  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures  to  our  sincere  endeavors,  and  we  are  surely 
able  to  judge  of  our  own  sincerity."  Here  was  not 
only  his  later  doctrine  of  the  "  Witness  of  the  Spirit," 
but  a  clear  dissent  from  the  Calvinistic  tenet  of 

"final  perseverance."     His  proclivity  to  Annmian- 

2 


18  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

ism  became  quite  decided  about  this  time.  "As  I 
understand  faith,"  he  wrote,  "  to  be  an  assent  to  any 
truth  upon  rational  grounds,  I  do  not  think  it  possi 
ble,  without  perjury,  to  swear  I  believe  anything 
unless  I  have  reasonable  grounds  for  my  persuasion. 
Now  that  which  contradicts  reason  cannot  be  said  to 
stand  upon  reasonable  grounds;  and  such,  undoubt 
edly,  is  every  proposition  which  is  incompatible  with 
the  divine  justice  or  mercy.  "What,  then,  shall  I  say 
of  predestination  ?  If  it  was  inevitably  decreed  from 
eternity  that  a  determinate  part  of  mankind  should 
be  saved,  and  none  besides,  then  a  vast  majority  of 
the  world  were  only  born  to  eternal  death,  without 
so  much  as  a  possibility  of  avoiding  it.  How  is  this 
consistent  with  either  the  divine  justice  or  mercy? 
Is  it  merciful  to  ordain  a  creature  to  everlasting 
misery?  Is  it  just  to  punish  a  man  for  crimes  which 
he  could  not  but  commit  ?  That  God  should  be  the 
author  of  sin  and  injustice,  which  must,  I  think,  be 
the  consequence  of  maintaining  this  opinion,  is 
a  contradiction  to  the  clearest  ideas  we  have  of 
the  divine  nature  and  perfections."  His  mother 
confirmed  him  in  these  views,  and  expressed  her 
abhorrence  of  the  Calvinistic  theology.  God's  pre 
science,  she  argued,  is  no  more  the  effective  cause 
of  the  loss  of  the  wicked  than  our  foreknowledge 
of  the  rising  of  to-morrow's  sun  is  the  cause  of 
its  rising.  She  prudently  advised,  however,  absti- 


EARLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  19 

nence  from  these  speculations  as  "studies  which 
tended  more  to  confound  than  to  inform  the  under 
standing." 

He  visited  his  father's  parish  at  Ep worth,  and  in 
its  rural  retirement  became  more  than  ever  infected 
with  the  mysticism  of  Kempis*  and  Law.  He  was 
inclined  to  the  recluse  life  of  the  Catholic  saints ;  it 
was,  he  says,  "  the  decided  temper  of  my  soul."  He 
proposed  to  himself  a  secluded  school  in  the  Yorkshire 
Dales,  but  his  vigilant  mother  checked  him,  predict 
ing  that  God  would  open  for  him  a  more  important 
career  in  the  world.  He  made  a  journey  of  some 
miles  to  converse  with  "  a  serious  man,"  of  whom  he 
had  heard.  "  Sir,"  said  this  man,  as  the  frank  and 
anxious  inquirer  stood  before  him,  "you  wish  to 
serve  God  and  go  to  heaven,  but  remember  you  can 
not  serve  him  alone ;  you  must,  therefore,  find  com 
panions,  or  make  them ;  the  Bible  knows  nothing  of 
solitary  religion."  He  returned  to  Oxford  and  found 
them ;  for  his  brother,  led  by  his  influence,  had 
gathered  about  him  a  group  of  devoted  students, 
and  the  "  Holy  Club "  was  already  organized. 
Its  members  were  soon  derisively  called  "Method 
ists,"  for  the  systematic  regularity  of  their  lives, 
and  especially  of  their  religious  observances.  John 
immediately  became  their  leader  by  the  tacit  recog 
nition  of  his  superior  capacity  and  character.  They 
studied  together  the  Greek  Scriptures,  the  classics, 


20  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

and  theology ;  they  fasted  twice  a  week,  and  received 
the  Lord's  supper  every  Sunday.  "Wesley  drew  up 
for  them  a  severe  system  of  self-examination,  worthy 
of  a  monastic  order.  They  devoted  certain  hours  to 
the  instruction  of  poor  children,  the  visitation  of  the 
sick  and  prisoners.  "Wesley  himself  now  began  that 
course  of  practical  charity  to  the  poor  which  con 
tinued  to  be  one  of  the  distinctions  of  his  remarkable 
life.  In  a  printed  sermon  he  says  :  "  When  I  was  at 
Oxford,  in  a  cold  winter's  day,  a  young  maid  (one  of 
those  we  kept  at  school)  called  upon  me.  I  said, 
*  You  seem  half  starved.  Have  you  nothing  to  cover 
you  but  this  thin  linen  gown  ? '  She  said,  i  Sir,-  this 
is  all  I  have.'  I  put  my  hand  in  my  pocket,  but 
found  I  had  scarce  any  money  left,  having  paid  away 
what  I  had.  It  immediately  struck  me,  'Will  thy 
Master  say,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  steward? 
Thou  hast  adorned  thy  walls  with  the  money  which 
might  have  screened  this  poor  creature  from  the 
cold!  O  justice!  O  mercy!  Are  not  these  pic 
tures  the  blood  of  this  poor  maid  ?  See  thy  expens 
ive  apparel  in  the  same  light ;  thy  gown,  hat,  head 
dress  !  Everything  about  thee  which  cost  more  than 
Christian  duty  required  thee  to  lay  out  is  the  blood 
of  the  poor !  O  be  wise  for  the  time  to  come !  Be 
more  merciful !  more  faithful  to  God  and  man  !  more 
abundantly  adorned  with  good  works ! ' ' 

When  his  income  from  his  college  fellowship  was 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  21 

but  £30  a  year  he  gave  away  £2  ;  when  it  was  £60  he 
Btill  confined  this  expenses  to  £28,  and  gave  away 
£32 ;  when  it  reached  £120  he  kept  himself  to  his  old 
allowance,  and  gave  away  £92.  Besides  giving  him 
self  wholly  to  the  public  good,  and  laboring  as  devot 
edly  as  any  other  man  of  modern  times  for  the  moral 
welfare  of  the  poor,  he  gave  away,  it  is  computed,  a 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars,  the  proceeds  of 
his  publications,  etc.  The  last  insertion  in  his  pri 
vate  journal,  written  with  a  trembling  hand,  reads 
thus :  "  For  upward  of  eighty-six  years  I  have  kept 
my  accounts  exactly.  I  will  not  attempt  it  any 
longer,  being  satisfied  with  the  continual  conviction 
that  I  save  all  I  can  and  give  all  I  can ;  that  is,  all  I 
have." 

With  such  rigor  did  these  earnest  young  men 
seek  self-purification  and  peace  of  soul.  They 
were  treated  with  contempt  by  their  fellow-col 
legians,  especially  as  they  marched  together  to  their 
weekly  sacrament ;  but  their  number  increased,  and 
the  germ  of  the  future  and  world-wide  growth  of 
Methodism  was  already  planted  within  the  learned 
pale  of  Oxford. 

In  1735  a  young  man  joined  them,  whose  fame,  as 
an  apostle,  was  to  fill  the  English  realm  in  both  hemi 
spheres.  He  was  born  in  Gloucester,  in  1714,  and 
spent  his  early  life  in  poverty,  ignorance,  and  vice. 
"When  about  fifteen  years  old  he  became  a  "  common 


22  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

drawer  "  in  an  inn  at  Bristol,  (which  was  kept  by  his 
mother,)  wearing,  as  he  says,  his  "  blue  apron  and  his 
snuffers,"  and  "  washing  and  cleaning  rooms."  "  If  I 
trace  myself,"  he  adds,  "from  my  cradle  to  my  man 
hood,  I  can  see  nothing  in  me  but  a  fitness  to  be 
damned;  and  if  the  Almighty  had  not  prevented 
me  by  his  grace,  I  had  now  either  been  sitting  in 
darkness,  and  in  the  shadow  of  death,  or  condemned, 
as  the  due  reward  of  my  crimes,  to  be  forever  lifting 
up  my  eyes  in  torments."  Yet  he  was  a  youth  of  the 
largest  soul  and  the  most  susceptible  moral  sensibili 
ties.  Religious  books  fell  into  his  hands ;  he  sought 
improvement  both  of  heart  and  head ;  he  made  his 
way  to  Oxford,  where  he  was  now  struggling  for  his 
education  in  the  humble  condition  of  a  servitor,  or 
"poor  student."  Kempis  and  Alleine's  "Alarm" 
here  deepened  his  religious  solicitude,  and,  groping 
in  the  thick  spiritual  darkness  which  surrounded  him 
amid  so  much  intellectual  light,  he  fell  into  pitiable 
anguish  and  not  a  few  superstitious  extravagances. 
His  mental  struggles  seemed  at  times  to  impair  his 
faculties  ;  his  memory  failed  ;  he  describes  himself  as 
feeling  like  a  person  bound  in  iron  armor;  he  chose 
the  poorest  food  that  he  could  subsist  on,  and  the 
meanest  raiment,  "  dirty  shoes,  patched  garments, 
and  coarse  gloves,"  for  the  mortification  of  his  baffled 
soul.  He  almost  daily  suffered  some  insult  from  his 
fellow-students.  When  he  knelt  in  prayer  he  felt  a 


EAELY   PROGEESS  IN  ENGLAND.  23 

mysterious  and  insupportable  "  pressure  on  soul  and 
body,"  and  often  spent  hours  in  these  intercessory 
agonies  while  the  sweat  dripped  down  his  person. 
"  God  only  knows,"  he  says,  "  how  many  nights  I 
have  lain  upon  my  bed  groaning  under  what  I  felt. 
Whole  days  and  weeks  have  I  spent  in  lying  pros 
trate  on  the  ground,  in  silent  or  vocal  prayer."  For 
forty  days,  during  Lent,  he  tasted  nothing  but  coarse 
bread  and  sage  tea,  except  on  Saturdays  and  Sun 
days.  He  resorted  to  solitary  places  seeking  rest 
and  finding  none  ;  he  spent  the  hours  of  night  pray 
ing  under  the  trees,  and  trembling  with  cold  and 
mental  anguish,  till  the  bell  of  the  college  called  him 
to  his  chamber,  where  the  remaining  hours,  till  dawn, 
were  passed  in  tears  and  prayers.  Of  course  his 
health  failed  under  these  errors  ;  a  long  sickness  dis 
abled  him  to  pursue  them,  and  in  his  helpless  prostra 
tion  he  was  led  to  apprehend  clearly  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith.  "  God,"  he  says,  "  was  pleased 
at  length  to  remove  the  heavy  load,  to  enable  me  to 
lay  hold  on  the  cross  by  a  living  faith,  and  by  giving 
me  the  spirit  of  adoption  to  seal  me,  as  I  humbly 
hope,  eren  to  the  day  of  everlasting  redemption. 
O !  with  what  joy,  joy  unspeakable,  even  joy  that 
was  full  of  glory,  was  my  soul  filled,  when  the  weight 
of  sin  went  off,  and  an  abiding  sense  of  the  par 
doning  love  of  God,  and  a  full  assurance  of  faith, 
broke  in  upon  my  disconsolate  soul  ?  Surely  it 


24  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

was  the  day  of  my  espousals,  a  day  to  be  had  in  ever 
lasting  remembrance.  At  first  my  joys  were  like  a 
spring  tide,  and,  as  it  were,  overflowed  the  banks; 
go  where  I  would  I  could  not  avoid  the  singing  of 
psalms  almost  aloud ;  afterward  they  became  more 
settled,  and  blessed  be  God,  saving  a  few  casual 
intervals,  have  abode  and  increased  in  my  soul  ever 
since." 

Such  was  George  "Whitefield's  initiation  into  the 
"  Holy  Club,"  the  Methodistic  band  at  Oxford.  He 
was  to  pioneer  their  public  career  in  England  and 
all  along  the  British  colonies  of  North  America,  the 
most  eloquent,  the  most  flaming  preacher  that  the 
Christian  Church  has  known  since  its  apostolic  age ; 
a  man  whose  native  genius  for  oratory,  heightened  by 
saintly  piety,  was  to  shake  with  an  unprecedented  sen 
sation,  and  awaken,  as  in  a  moral  resurrection,  nearly 
the  whole  British  empire ;  to  extort  unwonted  admi 
ration,  and  compliments  from  Hume,  Bolingbroke, 
Garrick,  Walpole,  and  Chesterfield ;  to  attract  in  his 
private  ministrations  at  the  mansion  of  the  Countess 
of  Huntington,  the  nobility  of  the  Court,  while  it 
swept  like  a  hurricane  over  throngs,  ten,  twenty, 
forty  thousand  strong,  on  the  hillsides,  and  in  the 
market-places  of  England,  Scotland,  "Wales,  Ireland, 
and  North  America,  startling  them  to  tears,  sobs,  and 
irrepressible  cries  of  anguish  and  penitence.  He 
seems  indeed  the  providential  man  for  the  approach- 


EAKLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  25 

ing  religious  crisis.  His  moral  struggles,  even  the 
superstitious  rigors  which  came  so  near  destroying 
him,  prepared  him  to  meet  and  counsel  similar  cases, 
in  the  general  religious  agitation  which  was  about  to 
set  in,  to  appreciate  and  assert  the  true  Christian  life 
as  "  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free." 
"With  a  heart  incandescent  with  divine  fire,  palpitating 
with  those  generous  sympathies  that  render  all  the 
world  kin  and  give  to  the  orator  irresistible  control 
of  the  popular  mind,  he  combined  an  imagination  as 
sublime  as  that  of  the  Hebraic  prophets,  and  the  most 
extraordinary  oratorical  aptitudes  of  voice  and  gesture. 
Garrick  said  he  could  make  his  hearers  weep  or 
shout  with  exultation,  merely  by  his  varied  pro 
nunciation  of  the  word  Mesopotamia ;  Hume  said 
he  would  go  twenty  miles  to  hear  him ;  Chesterfield 
opened  for  him  his  own  chapel  at  Bretby  Hall,  arid 
theatrical  actors  resorted  to  his  preaching  to  study 
the  secret  of  his  unrivaled  power.  A  peasant  hearer 
best  characterized  perhaps  that  indescribable  power 
when  he  declared  that  Whitefield  "  preached  like  a 
lion." 

The  Wesleys  had  a  longer  preparatory  moral  strug 
gle.  Failing  to  find  rest  to  their  souls  in  their  re 
ligious  observances  and  painful  self-discipline  at 
Oxford,  they  resolved  to  seek  it  in  entire  self-sacrifice 
as  missionaries  in  the  ends  of  the  earth.  They  went 
in  1Y35  to  Georgia,  to  preach  to  the  Indians  and  the 


26  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

colonists  of  Oglethorpe.  On  their  passage  they  found 
that  their  faith  could  not  sustain  them  in  the  perils  of 
storms ;  though  their  Moravian  fellow-passengers — 
humble  peasants  and  artisans — sang  hymns  of  hope 
and  joy  in  the  expectation  of  sudden  death.  John 
Wesley  conversed  with  them,  and  saw  clearly  that 
he  had  not  yet  attained  similar  piety.  -»  On  reaching 
Georgia  he  was  hospitably  received  by  its  little 
Moravian  community ;  Spangenberg,  one  of  their 
pastors,  put  to  him  a  searching  question  :  "  Does  the 
Spirit  of  God  bear  witness  with  your  spirit  that  you 
are  a  child  of  God  ?"  "Wesley  was  arrested  by  the 
inquiry  and  knew  not  how  to  answer  it.  "  Do  you 
know  Jesus  Christ  ?"  continued  Spangenberg.  "  I 
know  he  is  the  Saviour  of  the  wrorld,"  responded 
"Wesley.  "  True,"  replied  Spangenberg,  "  but  do  you 
know  that  he  has  saved  you  ? "  "  I  hope  he  has 
died  to  save  me,"  rejoined  Wesley.  Spangenberg  only 
added,  "  Do  you  know  yourself?"  "  I  do,"  answered 
Wesley,  "  but  I  fear,"  he  writes,  "  they  were  mere 
words."  He  lodged  with  these  devout  men,  and  was 
much  impressed  with  the  singular  simplicity  and 
purity  of  their  daily  life.  He  witnessed  with  admi 
ration  their  ecclesiastical  counsels,  the  election  and 
ordination  of  a  bishop,  and  writes  that  as  he  sat  in 
their  little  but  dignified  synod,  he  forgot  the  seven 
teen  centuries  which  had  passed  since  the  days 
of  the  apostles,  and  seemed  to  be  in  one  of  those 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  27 

assemblies  where  form  and  state  were  unknown,  but 
where  Paul  the  tentmaker,  and  Peter  the  fisher 
man,  presided  with  the  demonstration  of  the  spirit 
and  of  power. 

Yet  even  here,  amid  the  pure  light  of  the  primitive 
faith,  which  these  good  men  had  kindled  in  the 
wilderness,  "  he  comprehended  it  not,"  but  sought 
peace  to  his  troubled  soul  in  ascetic  self-denial  and  the 
"  merit  of  works."  He  read  daily  prayers  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  preached  and  administered  the 
communion  at  eleven,  and  read  the  evening  service 
at  three.  He  refused  all  food  but  bread  and  water, 
slept  on  the  ground,  taught  the  children  in  a  school, 
and  went  barefooted  that  he  might  encourage  his  poor 
scholars.  He  was  severe  to  others  as  well  as  to  him 
self;  his  rigors  broke  down  the  patience  of  the  people, 
and  he  at  last  retreated  from  the  field  discomfited  and 
in  despair.  His  brother  had  failed  in  a  similar  man 
ner,  and  had  returned  to  England.  John  followed 
him  about  fifteen  months  later.  As  he  came  in  sight 
of  Land's  End,  England,  he  wrote  in  his  journal  : 
"  I  went  to  America  to  convert  the  Indians,  but  O  ! 
who  shall  convert  me?  "Who,  what  is  he  that  will 
deliver  me  from  this  evil  heart  of  unbelief?  I  have 
a  fair  summer  religion  ;  I  can  talk  well,  nay,  and 
believe  myself,  while  no  danger  is  near  ;  but  let  death 
look  me  in  the  face  and  my  spirit  is  troubled,  nor 
can  I  say,  to  die  is  gain.  I  think  verily,  if  the  Gos- 


28  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

pel  be  true,  I  am  safe ;  for  I  not  only  have  given  and 
do  give  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor — I  not  only 
give  my  body  to  be  burned,  drowned,  or  whatever 
else  God  shall  appoint  for  me,  but  I  follow  after 
charity — though  not  as  I  ought,  yet  as  I  can — if  haply 
I  may  attain  it.  I  now  believe  the  Gospel  true.  I 
show  my  faith  by  my  works,  by  staking  my  all  upon 
it.  I  would  do  so  again  and  again  a  thousand  times, 
if  the  choice  were  still  to  make.  Whoever  sees  me, 
sees  I  would  be  a  Christian.  Therefore  are  my  ways 
not  like  other  men's  ways ;  therefore  I  have  been,  I 
am,  I  am  content  to  be,  a  by-word,  a  proverb  of  re 
proach.  But  in  a  storm  I  think,  What  if  the  Gospel 
be  not  true  ?  Then  thou  art  of  all  men  most  foolish. 
For  what  hast  thou  given  thy  goods,  thy  ease,  thy 
friends,  thy  reputation,  thy  country,  thy  life  ?  For 
what  art  thou  wandering  over  the  face  of  the  earth  ? 
a  dream  ?  a  cunningly-devised  fable  ?  O !  who  will 
deliver  me  from  this  fear  of  death?  What  shall  I 
do  ?  Where  shall  I  fly  from  it  ?  Should  I  fight 
against  it  by  thinking,  or  by  not  thinking  of  it  ?  A 
wise  man  advised  me  some  time  since,  i  Be  still,  and 
go  on.'  Perhaps  this  is  the  best ;  to  look  upon  it  as 
my  cross ;  when  it  comes  to  let  it  humble  me,  and 
quicken  all  my  good  resolutions,  especially  that  of 
praying  without  ceasing ;  and  at  other  times  to  take 
no  thought  about  it,  but  quietly  to  go  on  in  the  work 
of  the  Lord."  On  the  1st  of  February,  1738,  he  was 


EAKLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  29 

again  in  England,  and  writing  in  his  diary  :  "  This, 
then,  have  I  learned  in  the  ends  of  the  earth — that  I 
'  am  fallen  short  of  the  glory  of  God ;'  that  my  whole 
heart  is  '  altogether  corrupt  and  abominable,'  and, 
consequently,  my  whole  life — seeing  it  cannot  be  that 
an  '  evil  tree  '  should  'bring  forth  good  fruit ; '  that, 
'  alienated '  as  I  am  from  ( the  life  of  God,'  I  am  a 
c  child  of  wrath,'  an  heir  of  hell ;  that  my  own  works, 
my  own  sufferings,  my  own  righteousness,  are  so  far 
from  reconciling  me  to  an  offended  God,  so  far  from 
making  any  atonement  for  the  least  of  those  sins 
which  '  are  more  in  number  than  the  hairs  of  my 
head,'  that  the  most  specious  of  them  need  an  atone 
ment  themselves,  or  they  cannot  abide  his  righteous 
judgment ;  that  i  having  the  sentence  of  death '  in 
my  heart,  and  having  nothing  in  or  of  myself  to 
plead,  I  have  no  hope  but  that  of  being  justified 
freely,  '  through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Jesus ;' 
I  have  no  hope,  but  that  if  I  seek,  I  shall  find  Christ, 
and  c  be  found  in  him,  not  having  my  own  righteous 
ness,  but  that  which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ, 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith.' ': 

Again  he  writes,  "  It  is  now  two  years  and  almost 
four  months  since  I  left  my  native  country,  in  order 
to  teach  the  Georgian  Indians  the  nature  of  Chris 
tianity.  But  what  have  I  learned  myself,  meantime  ? 
"Why,  what  I  the  least  of  all  suspected,  that  I,  who 
went  to  America  to  convert  others,  was  never  myself 


30  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

converted  to  God.  /  am  not  mad,  though  I  thus 
speak,  but  I  speak  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness, 
if,  haply,  some  of  those  who  still  dream  may  awake, 
and  see  that  as  I  am  so  are  they."  Were  they  read  in 
philosophy?  he  continues  with  eloquent  earnestness, 
and  in  language  which  would  cover  boastfulness  itself 
with  shame ;  were  they  read  in  philosophy  ?  so  was 
he.  In  ancient  or  modern  tongues  ?  he  was  also. 
"Were  they  versed  in  the  science  of  divinity?  he  too 
had  studied  it  many  years.  Could  they  talk  fluently 
upon  spiritual  things  ?  the  very  same  could  he  do. 
Were  they  plenteous  in  alms  ?  behold,  he  gave  all  his 
goods  to  feed  the  poor.  Did  they  give  of  their  labor 
as  well  as  their  substance?  he  had  labored  more 
abundantly.  Were  they  willing  to  suffer  for  their 
brethren?  he  had  thrown  away  his  friends,  reputa 
tion,  ease,  country ;  he  had  put  his  life  in  his  hands, 
wandering  into  strange  lands  ;  he  had  given  his  body 
to  be  devoured  by  the  deep,  parched  up  with  heat, 
consumed  by  toil  and  weariness,  or  whatsoever  God 
should  please  to  bring  upon  him.  But,  he  continues, 
does  all  this,  be  it  more  or  less  it  matters  not,  make 
him  acceptable  to  God  ?  Does  all  he  ever  did,  or  can, 
know,  say,  give,  do,  or  suffer,  justify  him  in  His  sight  ? 
If  the  oracles  of  God  are  true,  if  we  are  still  to  abide  by 
the  law  and  testimony,  all  these  things,  though  when 
ennobled  by  faith  in  Christ  they  are  holy,  and  just,  and 
good,  yet  without  it  are  dung  and  dross.  lie  refuses 


EARLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.   ,  31 

to  be  comforted  by  ambiguous  hopes.  "  If,"  he  adds, 
"  it  be  said  that  I  have  faith,  for  many  such  things 
have  I  heard  from  many  miserable  comforters,  I 
answer,  so  have  the  devils  a  sort  of  faith ;  but  still 
they  are  strangers  to  the  covenant  of  promise.  The 
faith  I  want  is  a  sure  trust  and  confidence  in  God, 
that,  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  my  sins  are  for 
given,  and  I  reconciled  to  the  favor  of  God." 

Methodism  is  indebted  to  Moravianisni  for  not  only 
some  of  the  most  important  features  of  its  moral  dis 
cipline,  but  for  the  personal  "  conversion  "  of  both 
the  Wesleys.  On  returning  to  London  they  found 
representatives  of  that  community  conducting  certain 
social  religious  assemblies,  which  met  weekly.  To 
these  they  resorted^especially  to  one  held  in  Fetter 
Lane*,  for  they  found  there  a  better  exposition  of  < 
Christianity  than  at  St.  Paul's  or  Westminster  Abbey, 
more  responsive  at  least  to  those  religious  solicitudes 
which  were  quickening  their  souls  into  regenerated 
life.  Peter  Bolder,  afterward  a  Moravian  bishop, 
became  now  the  daily  companion  and  counselor  of 
the  two  inquirers.  Charles  Wesley  was  the  first  to 
emerge,  under  his  guidance,  out  of  the  mists  which 
had  so  long  hung  about  them,  into  the  true  light  and 
peace  of  the  Gospel,  but  not  without  much  hesi 
tancy,  and  certain  theological  fallacies  which  would 
seem  incredible  to  the  better  instruction  which 
Methodism  has  afforded  to  our  age.  He  was  dan- 


32  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

gerously  ill,  and  Bohler  came  to  sympathize  with 
him.  After  praying  at  his  bedside,  the  good  Moravian 
took  his  hand  and  asked,  "  Do  you  hope  to  be  saved  ?" 
"  I  answered,  Yes."  "  For  what  reason  do  you  hope 
to  be  saved  ?"  "  Because  I  have  used  my  best  endeav 
ors  to  serve  God."  He  shook  his  head  and  said  no 
more.  I  thought  him  very  uncharitable,  saying  in 
my  heart,  What,  are  not  my  endeavors  a  sufficient 
ground  of  hope  ?  Would  he  rob  me  of  my  endeavors  ? 
I  have  nothing  else  to  trust  to."  Some  time  after  this 
interview,  while  still  uncertain  of  his  life,  the  great 
truth  of  justification  by  faith  dawned  clearly  upon  his 
vision,  he  believed,  and  "  entered  into  rest."  "  I 
now,"  he  writes,  "found  myself  at  peace  with  God." 
His  brother  still  cleaves  to  Bohler,  "  not  losing  an 
opportunity  of  conversing  with  him."  They  go  to 
Oxford  and  converse  in  Latin  on  divine  themes,  in 
the  University  cloisters  and  adjacent  groves.  After 
one  of  these  walks,  Wesley  records,  "  By  him,  in  the 
hand  of  the  great  God,  I  was  on  Sunday  [March  5th, 
1738]  clearly  convinced  of  unbelief,  of  the  want  of 
that  faith  whereby  alone  we  can  be  saved."  Bohler 
has  himself  left  an  account  of  these  interviews,  and 
says  that  Wesley  "  wept  bitterly  while  I  was  talking 
upon  this  subject,  and  afterward  asked  me  to  pray 
with  him.  lean  freely  affirm,  that  he  is  a  poor 
broken-hearted  sinner,  hungering  after  a  better 
righeousness  than  that  which  he  has  hitherto  had, 


EARLY   PROGRESS   IX   ENGLAND.  33 

even  tlie  righteousness  of  Christ.  In  the  evening  he 
preached  from  the  words,  '  We  preach  Christ  cruci 
fied/  etc.  He  had  more  than  four  thousand  hearers, 
and  spoke  in  such  a  way  that  all  were  amazed — 
many  souls  were  awakened." 

On  the  evening  of  the  24th  of  May,  1738,  Wesley 
attended  one  of  the  social  religious  assemblies  of  the 
Moravians,  where  he  says  "  one  was  reading  Luther's 
Preface  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans."  It  was  this 
original  protest  of  the  Eeformation,  in  behalf  of  the 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  that  led  Wesley  into 
the  personal  experience  of  that  great  truth  and  kin 
dled  it  on  all  the  altars  of  Methodism,  y  The  venerable 
document  has  never  been  cited  by  any  of  the  histo 
rians  of  the  denomination  or  biographers  of  Wesley,* 
yet  it  deserves  attention  not  only  for  its  historical  con 
nection  with  the  denomination,  but  for  its  clear,  bold, 
and  genuinely  Lutheran  statement  of  the  doctrine. 
"Faith  alone,"  it  says,  "justifies,  and  it  alone  fulfills 
the  law.  For  faith,  through  the  merits  of  Christ, 
obtains  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  blessed  Spirit  renews, 
exhilarates,  excites,  and  inflames  the  heart,  so  that  it 
spontaneously  performs  what  the  law  requires.  And 
then,  at  length,  from  the  faith  thus  efficaciously 
working  and  living  in  the  heart,  freely  fluunt^  pro 
ceed  those  works  which  are  truly  good.  The  apostle 

*  It  is  inserted  in  the  Appendix  of  Jackson's  "  Centenary  of  "Wes- 
leyan  Methodism." 

3 


34  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

wishes  to  convey  this  meaning  in  the  third  chapter. 
For  after  he  had,  in  that  chapter,  utterly  condemned 
the  works  of  the  law,  and  might  almost  seem,  by  the 
doctrine  of  faith,  about  to  destroy  and  abolish  the 
law,  he  at  once  anticipates  the  objection  by  asserting, 
1  We  do  not  destroy  the  law,  but  we  establish  it ; ' 
that  is,  we  teach  how  the  law  is  really  fulfilled  by 
believing,  or  through  faith. 

"  But  true  faith  is  the  work  of  God  in  us,  by  which 
we  are  born  again  and  renewed,  through  God  and  the 
Spirit  of  God,  as  we  are  told  in  John  i ;  and  by  which 
the  old  Adam  is  slain,  and  we  are  completely  trans 
formed  per  omnia,  in  all  things ;  as  the  Apostle  de 
clares,  i  We  are  made  new  creatures  in  Christ  through 
faith ; '  ubi,  in  which  new  creatures  the  Holy  Spirit 
becomes  vita  et  gufiernatio  cordis,  the  living  and  rul 
ing  principle  of  the  heart.  But  faith  is  an  energy  in 
the  heart ;  at  once  so  efficacious,  lively,  breathing,  and 
powerful,  as  to  be  incapable  of  remaining  inactive, 
but  bursts  forth  into  operation.  Neither  does  he  who 
has  faith,  moratur,  demur  about  the  question,  whether 
good  works  have  been  commanded  or  not ;  but  even 
though  there  were  no  law,  feeling  the  motions  of 
this  living  impulse  putting  forth  and  exerting  itself 
in  his  heart,  he  is  spontaneously  borne  onward  to 
work,  and  at  no  time  does  he  cease  to  perform  such 
actions  as  are  truly  pious  and  Christian.  But  who 
soever  from  such  a  living  affection  of  the  heart  pro- 


EARLY  PROGEESS  IN  ENGLAND.  35 

duces  no  good  works,  lie  is  still  in  a  state  of  total 
unbelief,  and  is  a  stranger  to  faith ;  as  are  most  of 
those  persons  who  hold  long  disputes,  and  give  utter 
ance  to  much  declamation  in  the  schools  about  faith 
and  good  works,  '  neither  understanding  what  they 
say,  nor  whereof  they  affirm.'  Faith,  then,  is  a  con 
stant  fiducia,  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  toward  us  J, 
a  trust  living  and  efficaciously  working  in  the  heart ; 
by  which  we  cast  ourselves  entirely  on  God,  and  com 
mit  ourselves  to  him ;  by  which,  certo  freti,  having 
an  assured  reliance,  we  feel  no  hesitation  about 
enduring  death  a  thousand  times.  And  this  firm 
trust  in  the  mercy  of  God  is  tarn  animosa,  so  animat 
ing,  as  to  cheer,  elevate,  and  excite  the  heart,  and  to 
transport  it  with  certain  most  sweet  affections  toward 
God,  and  it  animates  this  heart  of  the  believer  in 
such  a  manner  that,  firmly  relying  on  God,  he  feels  no 
dread  in  opposing  himself  solum,  as  a  single  cham 
pion,  against  all  creatures.  This  high  and  heroical 
feeling,  therefore,  hos  ingentes  animos,  this  noble 
enlargement  of  spirit,  is  injected  and  effected  in  the 
heart  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  who  is  imparted  [to  the 
believer]  through  faith.  And  hence  we  also  obtain 
[the  privilege]  to  be  impelled  to  that  which  is  good, 
by  this  vital  energy  in  our  hearts.  We  also  obtain 
such  a  cheerful  propensionem,  inclination,  that  freely 
and  spontaneously  we  are  eager  and  most  ready  to 
do,  to  suffer,  and  to  endure  all  things  in  obedience  to 


36  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM, 

a  Father  and  God  of  such  great  clemency ;  who, 
through  Christ,  has  enriched  us  with  such  abundant 
treasures  of  grace,  and  has  almost  overwhelmed  us 
with  such  transcendent  benefits.  It  is  impossible 
that  this  efficacious  and  vital  principle  of  faith  can  be 
in  any  man  without  continually  operating,  and  pro 
ducing  fruit  to  God.  It  is  just  as  impossible  for  a 
pile  of  dry  fagots  to  be  set  on  fire  without  emitting 
flames  of  light.  Wherefore  use  watchfulness,  ibi,  in 
this  quarter,  so  as  not  to  believe  the  vain  imagina 
tions  of  thy  own  mind,  and  the  foolish  cogitations 
and  trifles  of  the  sophists.  For  these  men  possess 
neither  heart  nor  brains :  they  are  mere  animals  of 
the  belly,  born  only  for  these  solemn  banquets  of  the 
schools.  But  do  thou  pray  to  God,  who  by  his  word 
has  commanded  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  that 
he  would  be  pleased  to  shine  into  thy  heart,  and 
create  faith  within  thee ;  otherwise  thou  wilt  never 
believe,  though  thou  shouldest  spend  a  thousand 
years  in  studying  to  fabricate  such  cogitations  about 
a  faith  already  obtained  or  to  be  hereafter  acquired." 
Such  were  the  passages  of  Luther  which,  we  may  in 
fer  fromWesley's  allusions,  were  read  when  at "  about 
a  quarter  before  nine,  while  he  was  describing  the 
change  which  God  works  in  the  heart  through  faith  in 
Christ,  I  felt  my  heart  strangely  warmed ;  I  felt  I  did 
trust  in  Christ,  Christ  alone,  for  salvation ;  and  an 
assurance  was  given  me  that  he  had  taken  away  my 


EARLY   PROGRESS   IN   ENGLAND.  37 

sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.  I  began  to  pray  with  all  my  might  for 
those  who  had  in  a  more  especial  manner  despitefully 
used  me,  and  persecuted  me.  I  then  testified  openly 
to  all  there  what  I  now  first  felt  in  my  heart." 

Bohler  had  sailed  for  America  ;  but  Wesley's  moth 
er,  now  residing,  a  widow,  in  London,  was  his  faithful 
and  most  trusted  counselor.  He  read  to  her  a  record 
of  his  new  experience ;  she  emphatically  approved  it, 
and  exclaimed  that  "  she  heartily  blessed  God,  who 
had  brought  him  to  so  just  a  way  of  thinking." 
Thus  in  the  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  age,  after  twenty- 
five  years,  as  he  tells  us,  of  religious  struggles,  he 
found  peace  to  his  soul,  by  the  clearer  apprehension 
of  the  apostolic  doctrine  of  faith  and  its  relation  to 
justification.  And  now  he  was  prepared  to  go  forth 
on  his  memorable  career,  publishing  through  the 
realm,  to  all  contrite  men,  the  same  peace  on  the 
same  condition.  The  next  month  he  was  preaching 
"  salvation  by  faith  "  before  the  University  of  Oxford. 

I  have  treated,  somewhat  in  detail,  this  early  por 
tion  of  the  history  of  Methodism,  because  it  affords 
us  the  true  standpoint  of  the  new  movement.  Its 
origin  is  to  be  traced  to  the  Lutheran,  not  to  the  Cal- 
vinistic  conception  of  Christianity.  It  was  personal 
spiritual  life  that  its  founders  sought  and  obtained,  a 
fact  that  characterizes  all  its  subsequent  development. 
The  formal  organization  which  it  afterward  assumed 


38  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

tends  indeed  to  disguise  this,  its  essential  character ;  to 
casual  readers  of  its  history,  it  appears  as  an  ecclesi 
astical  system,  as  definitive  sects,  as  great  hierarchical 
Churches  in  Europe  and  America;  but  let  it  be 
repeated  that  the  reproduction  of  the  apostolic  spir 
itual  life  was  its  single  aim ;  and  its  complicated  and 
singularly  powerful  organization  was  but  an  effect 
of  this  its  primary  fact  or  principle,  an  energetic 
scheme  for  the  propagation  of  spiritual  religion  in 
the  Churches  and  throughout  the  world. 

"  What  was  the  rise  of  Methodism  ? "  asked  Wes 
ley,  in  his  conference  of  1765.  He  answered,  "In 
1729  my  brother  and  I  read  the  Bible ;  saw  inward 
and  outward  holiness  therein ;  followed  after  it,  and 
incited  others  so  to  do.  In  1737  we  saw  this  holiness 
comes  by  faith.  In  1738  we  saw  we  must  be  justified 
before  we  are  sanctified.  But  still  holiness  was  our 
point ;  inward  and  outward  holiness.  God  then 
thrust  us  out  to  raise  a  holy  people." 

John  Wesley  hastened,  after  his  conversion,  to  the 
continent,  to  consult  with  the  Moravians,  whose 
English  representatives  had  thus  far  been  his  best 
guides.  He  conversed  with  Count  ZinzendorfF  and 
other  leaders  of  the  United  Brethren,  and  returned 
to  England  confirmed  in  his  faith  and  the  now  single 
purpose  of  his  life. 

Whitefield  had  been  preaching  in  Bristol,  London, 
and  some  country  towns,  with  extraordinary  effect ; 


EARLY   PROGRESS  IN   ENGLAND.  39 

seldom  or  never  had  so  great  hosts  of  people  assem 
bled  in  England  to  hear  a  preacher ;  he  had  stirred 
the  whole  metropolis ;  he  had  also  hastened  across  the 
Atlantic  and  initiated  in  Georgia  his  great  American 
mission,  which  was  to  quicken  all  the  colonies  and 
prepare  the  way  for  the  later  work  of  American 
Methodism.  He  was  now  on  his  way  back  to  En 
gland,  at  the  opportune  moment  to  co-operate  with 
the  Wesleys.  Charles  Wesley  had  also  preached  in 
London  and  elsewhere  with  much  interest  during  his 
brother's  absence  in  Germany ;  his  congregations 
had  been  crowded,  but  church  after  church  had  been 
closed  against  him  by  -the  clergy,  who  could  not 
condemn  his  doctrines,  but  rebuked  his  zeal  and 
disapproved  the  eager  interest  and  excitement  of  the 
people.  He  was  compelled  at  last  to  resort  to  the 
prisons  and  the  religious  "  society  meetings,"  which 
have  been  mentioned,  and  which  now,  more  than 
ever,  seemed  a  providential  provision  for  the  incip 
ient  Methodism.  When  John  Wesley  reached  the 
city  he  resorted  to  these  humble  assemblies  as  to  an 
asylum.  The  next  day  after  his  arrival  "  I  began," 
he  says,  "  to  declare  in  my  own  country  the  glad 
tidings  of  salvation,  preaching  three  times,  and  after 
ward  expounding  to  a  large  company  in  the  Minories. 
On  Monday  I  rejoiced  to  meet  our  little  society, 
which  now  consisted  of  thirty-two  persons.  The 
next  day  I  went  to  the  condemned  felons  in  New- 


4:0  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

gate,  and  offered  them  a  free  salvation.  In  the  even 
ing  I  went  to  a  society  in  Bear  Yard,  and  preached 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins.  The  next  evening 
I  spoke  the  truth  in  love  at  a  society  in  Aldersgate- 
street ;  some  contradicted  at  first,  but  not  long ;  so 
that  nothing  but  love  appeared  at  our  parting. 
Thursday,  21st,  I  went  to  a  society  in  Gutter  Lane, 
but  I  could  not  declare  the  mighty  works  of  God 
there  as  I  did  afterward  at  the  Savoy,  with  all  sim 
plicity,  and  the  word  did  not  return  empty.  On 
Saturday,  23d,  I  was  enabled  to  speak  strong  words 
both  at  Newgate  and  at  Mr.  E.'s  society,  and  the 
next  day  at  St.  Anne's,  and  twice  at  St.  John's,  Clerk- 
en  well,  so  that  I  fear  they  will  bear  with  me  there  no 
longer."  Thus  he  entered  upon  the  great  career  of 
his  life ;  for  these  incessant  labors,  it  has  been  justly 
observed,  were  no  consequence  of  a  febrile  or  tempo 
rary  zeal ;  they  were  an  example  of  what  was  there 
after  to  be  almost  his  daily  habit  till  he  fell,  in  his 
eighty-eighth  year,  at  the  head  of  more  than  a  hund 
red  and  fifty  thousand  followers,  and  five  hundred  and 
fifty  itinerant  preachers,  who  were  stimulated  by  his 
unabated  zeal  to  similar  labors  in  both  hemispheres. 
He  began  by  "  expounding,"  nearly  every  day,  in  the 
London  "  Societies."  On  Sundays  he  preached  in 
the  churches,  but,  at  the  end  of  almost  every  sermon, 
he  records  it  to  be  the  last  time ;  not  that  his  manner 
was  clamorous,  or  in  any  way  eccentric ;  nor  that  hia 


EAKLY   PROGRESS   IX   ENGLAND.  41 

doctrine  was  heretical,  for  it  was  clearly  that  of  the 
Homilies  and  other  standards  of  the  Church  ;  but  it 
was  brought  out  too  forcibly  and  presented  too 
vividly  for  the  state  of  religious  life  around  him. 
He  went  from  the  closed  pulpits  not  only  to  the 
"Societies,"  but  to  the  prisons  and  the  hospitals, 
where  his  message  was  received  with  gratitude  and 
tears,  and  was  attended  with  the  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit  and  of  power. 

Denied  the  city  pulpits,  the  brothers  went  not  only 
to  the  "  Societies  "  and  prisons,  but  to  and  fro  in  the 
country,  preaching  almost  daily.  .  .Whitefield  was 
'needed  to  lead  them  into  more  thorough  and  more 
necessary  "irregularities."  He  arrived  in  London 
December  8,  1738.  Wesley  hastened  to  greet  him, 
and  on  the  12th  "  God  gave  us,"  he  writes,  "  once 
more  to  take  sweet  counsel  together."  The  mighty 
preacher  who  had  agitated  the  whole  metropolis  a 
year  before,  now  met  the  same  treatment  as  his 
Oxford  friends.  In  three  days  five  churches  were 
denied  him.  Good,  however,  was  to  come  out  of 
this  evil.  He  also  had  recourse  now  to  the  "  Soci 
eties,"  and  his  ardent  soul  caught  new  zeal  from  their 
simple  devotions  as  from  his  new  trials.  "Wesley 
describes  a  scene  at  one  of  these  assemblies,  which 
reminds  us  of  the  preparatory  Pentecostal  baptism  of 
fire,  by  which  the  apostles  were  "  endued  with  power 
from  on  high"  for  their  mission.  He  says,  January 


42  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

1,  1739,  that  Messrs.  Hall,  Kinchin,  Ingham,  White- 
field,  and  his  brother  Charles  were  present  with  him 
at  a  love-feast  in  Fetter  Lane,  with  about  sixty  of  their 
brethren.  "About  three  in  the  morning,  as  they  were 
continuing  instant  in  prayer,  the  power  of  God  came 
mightily  upon  them,  insomuch  that  many  cried  out 
for  exceeding  joy,  and  many  fell  to  the  ground.  As 
soon  as  they  had  recovered  a  little  from  the  awe  and 
amazement  which  the  presence  of  the  Divine  Majesty 
had  inspired,  they  broke  out  with  one  voice,  "We 
praise  thee,  O  God ;  we  acknowledge  thee  to  be  the 
Lord."  Whitefield  exclaims  :  "  It  was  a  Pentecostal 
season,  indeed."  And  he  adds,  respecting  these 
"  Society  meetings,"  that  "  sometimes  whole  nights 
were  spent  in  prayer.  Often  have  we  been  filled  as 
with  new  wine,  and  often  have  I  seen  them  over 
whelmed  with  the  Divine  Presence,  and  cry  out, 
<  Will  God  indeed  dwell  with  men  upon  earth  ? 
How  dreadful  is  this  place !  This  is  no  other  than 
the  house  of  God,  and  the  gate  of  heaven  ! ' "  In  this 
manner  did  the  three  evangelists  begin  together  the 
memorable  year  which  was  afterward  to  be  recog 
nized  as  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  On  the  5th 
Whitefield  records  an  occasion  which  foreshadowed 
the  future.  A  "conference"  was  held  at  Islington 
with  seven  ministers,  "  despised  Methodists,"  con 
cerning  many  things  of  importance.  They  contin 
ued  in  fasting  and  prayer  till  three  o'clock,  and  then 


EARLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  43 

parted  "  with  a  full  conviction  that  God  was  about  to 
do  great  things  among  us" 

Was  it  necessary  that  these  predicted  "great  things  " 
should  be  done  in  England  at  this  time  ?  The  moral 
condition  of  the  United  Kingdom  in  the  last  century 
is  well  known.  Citations  from  indisputable  author 
ities,  to  prove  its  general  demoralization,  have 
become  trite  passages  in  works  on  Methodism.  The 
reaction  against  Puritanism,  produced  by  the  restora 
tion  of  the  Stuarts,  had  left  a  universal  moral  blight 
upon  the  nation.  Seldom  or  never  had  gross  vice 
been  more  rife  among  the  masses  of  the  people,  sel 
dom  or  never  had  the  Churches  and  their  clergy  sunk 
into  more  complete  moral  stupor,  not  to  say  moral 
death.  Bishop  Burnet  declares  that  he  was  "op 
pressed  night  and  day"  with  "sad  thoughts"  on  the 
prospects  of  Christianity  in  the  realm.  "  I  cannot," 
he  adds,  "  look  on  without  the  deepest  concern,  when 
I  see  the  imminent  ruin  hanging  over  this  Church, 
and,  by  consequence,  over  the  whole  Reformation. 
The  outward  state  of  things  is  black  enough,  God 
knows ;  but  that  which  heightens  my  fears  rises 
chiefly  from  the  inward  state  into  which  we  are 
unhappily  fallen."  Referring  to  the  character  of 
the  clergy,  he  says,  "  Our  ember  weeks  are  the  bur 
den  and  grief  of  my  life.  The  much  greater  part  of 
those  who  come  to  be  ordained  are  ignorant  to  a 
degree  not  to  be  apprehended  by  those  who  are  not 


44  CENTENARY  OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

obliged  to  know  it.  The  easiest  part  of  knowledge  is 
that  to  which  they  are  the  greatest  strangers.  Those 
who  have  read  some  few  books,  yet  never  seem  to 
have  read  the  Scriptures.  Many  cannot  give  a  toler 
able  account  even  of  the  Catechism  itself,  how  short 
and  plain  soever.  This  does  often  tear  my  heart. 
The  case  is  not  much  better  in  many  who,  having 
got  into  orders,  come  for  institution,  and  cannot 
make  it  appear  that  they  have  read  the  Scriptures, 
or  any  one  good  book,  since  they  were  ordained." 
Watts  declares  that  there  was  "  a  general  decay  of 
vital  religion  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men ; "  that 
"this  declension  of  piety  and  virtue"  was  common 
among  Dissenters  and  Churchmen ;  that  it  was  "  a 
general  matter  of  mournful  observation  among  all 
who  lay  the  cause  of  God  to  heart ; "  and  he  called 
upon  "  every  one  to  use  all  possible  efforts  for  the 
recovery  of  dying  religion  in  the  world"  Another 
writer  asserts  that  "  the  Spirit  of  God  has  so  far  de 
parted  from  the  nation,  that  hereby  almost  all  vital 
religion  is  lost  out  of  the  world."  Another  says, 
"  The  religion  of  nature  makes  up  the  darling  topics 
of  our  age ;  and  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  valued  only 
for  the  sake  of  that,  and  -only  so  far  as  it  carries  on 
the  light  of  nature,  and  is  a  bare  improvement  of 
that  kind  of  light.  All  that  is  restrictively  Chris 
tian,  or  that  is  peculiar  to  Christ,  (everything  con 
cerning  him  that  has  not  its  apparent  foundation 


EARLY   PKOGKESS   IN   ENGLAND.  45 

in  natural  light,  or  that  goes  beyond  its  prin 
ciples,)  is  waived,  and  banished,  and  despised." 
Archbishop  Seeker  says :  "  In  this  we  cannot  be 
mistaken,  that  an  open  and  professed  disregard  is 
become,  through  a  variety  of  unhappy  causes,  the 
distinguishing  character  of  the  present  age/' 
"  Such,"  he  declares,  "  are  the  dissoluteness  and 
contempt  of  principle  in  the  higher  part  of  the 
world,  and  the  profligacy,  intemperance,  and  fear 
lessness  of  committing  crimes,  in  the  lower,  as  must, 
if  this  torrent  of  impiety  stop  not,  become  absolutely 
fatal."  He  further  asserts  that  "  Christianity  is  ridi 
culed  and  railed  at  with  very  little  reserve,  and  the 
teachers  of  it  without  any  at  all ; "  and  this  testimony 
was  made  but  one  year  before  that  which  is  com 
memorated  as  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  About  the 
same  time  Butler  published  his  great  work  on  the 
Analogy  between  Religion  and  the  Constitution  and 
Course  of  Nature,  as  a  check  to  the  infidelity  of  the 
age.  In  his  preface  he  gives  a  deplorable  descrip 
tion  of  the  religious  world.  He  concurs  with  the 
preceding  authorities  in  representing  it  as  in  the 
very  extremity  of  decline.  "  It  has  come,"  he  says, 
"to  be  taken  for  granted  that  Christianity  is  no 
longer  a  subject  of  inquiry  ;  but  that  it  is  now  at 
length  discovered  to  be  fictitious.  And  accordingly 
it  is  treated  as  if,  in  the  present  age,  this  were  an 
agreed  point  among  all  persons  of  discernment,  and 


46          CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

nothing  remained  but  to  set  it  up  as  a  principal 
subject  for  mirth  and  ridicule."  Southey  says: 
"  The  clergy  had  lost  that  authority  which  may 
always  command  at  least  the  appearance  of  respect ; 
and  they  had  lost  that  respect  also  by  which  the 
place  of  authority  may  sometimes  so  much  more 
worthily  be  supplied.  In  the  great  majority  of  the 
clergy  zeal  was  wanting.  The  excellent  Leighton 
spoke  of  the  Church  as  a  fair  carcass  without  a 
spirit.  Burnet  observes  that,  in  his  time,  our  clergy 
had  less  authority,  and  were  under  more  contempt, 
than  those  of  any  other  Church  in  all  Europe ;  for 
they  were  much  the  most  remiss  in  their  labors,  and 
the  least  severe  in  their  lives.  It  was  not  that  their 
lives  were  scandalous ;  he  entirely  acquitted  them  of 
any  such  imputation  ;  but  they  were  not  exemplary, 
as  it  became  them  to  be;  and  in  the  sincerity  of  a 
pious  and  reflecting  mind,  he  pronounced  that  they 
would  never  regain  the  influence  they  had  lost  till 
they  lived  better  and  labored  more." 

A  scarcely  less  prejudiced  writer  on  Methodism, 
Isaac  Taylor,  admits  that  when  "VKesley  appeared  the 
Anglican  Church  was  "  an  ecclesiastical  system  under 
which  the  people  of  England  had  lapsed  into  hea 
thenism,  or  a  state  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from 
it ; "  and  that  Methodism  "  preserved  from  extinction 
and  reanimated  the  languishing  Nonconformity  of 
the  last  century,  which,  just  at  the  time  of  the 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  47 

Methodistic  revival,  was  rapidly  in  course  to  be 
found  nowhere  but  in  books." 

This  general  decline  had  reached  its  extremity 
when  Wesley  and  his  coadjutors  appeared.  "  It 
was,"  to  use  his  own  words,  "just  at  the  time  when 
we  wanted  little  of  filling  up  the  measure  of  our 
iniquities,  that  two  or  three  clergymen  of  the  Church 
of  England  began  vehemently  to  call  sinners  to 
repentance."  "  What,"  he  asks,  "  is  the  present 
characteristic  of  the  English  nation?  It  is  ungodli 
ness.  Ungodliness  is  our  universal,  our  constant, 
our  peculiar  character." 

There  was,  in  fact,  a  profound  infidelity  under 
mining  British  Christianity  at  this  time ;  it  was  the 
chief  cause  of  the  inefficiency  of  the  pulpit,  of  the 
declension  of  the  Churches,  and  of  the  popular 
demoralization.  Moreover,  it  really  gave  birth  to 
the  later  skepticism  of  Germany  and  of  Europe  gener 
ally.  The  writings  of  Hobbes,  Shaftesbury,  Tindal, 
and  Collins,  were  in  prevalent  circulation,  and  were 
reinforced  by  the  three  mightiest  giants,  in  skeptical 
error,  which  modern  times  have  produced,  Boling- 
broke,  Hume,  and  Gibbon.  Natural  religion  was 
the  favorite  study  of  the  clergy,  and  of  the  learned 
generally,  and  included  most  of  their  theology. 
Collins  and  Tindal  had  denounced  Christianity  as 
priestcraft ;  Whiston  pronounced  the  miracles  to  be 
Jewish  impositions;  Woolston  declared  them  to  be 


48  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

allegories;  and  the  next  year  after  the  recognized 
date  of  Methodism,  Edelmann  and  Reimarus  intro 
duced  the  English  deism  into  Germany,  and  thus 
founded  the  Rationalism  which,  as  developed  by  her 
"Historical"  or  "Negative  Criticism,"  nearly  extin 
guished,  for  a  time,  her  religious  life.  The  decayed 
state  of  the  English  Church,  in  which  Methodism  was 
about  to  have  its  birth,  was,  in  fine,  the  cause,  direct 
or  indirect,  of  most  of  the  infidelity  of  the  age,  both 
at  home  and  abroad.  Arianism  and  Socinianism, 
taught  by  such  men  as  Clarke,  Priestley,  Price,  and 
"Whiston,  had  become  fashionable  among  the  best 
English  thinkers.  Many  illustrious  names  can  be 
cited  as  exceptions ;  they  were,  however,  but  excep 
tions  to  the  general  condition  of  religion  throughout 
the  United  Kingdom.  Some  of  the  most  emphatic 
testimonies,  to  the  deplorable  declension  of  piety  and 
morals,  which  have  come  down  to  us,  are  from  the 
pens  of  such  exceptional  men. 

The  Methodistic  movement  may  be  said  to  have 
now  definitively  commenced.  "Whitefield  went  to 
Bristol ;  the  whole  city  seemed  aroused  by  his  power 
ful  preaching,  but  he  was  soon  repelled  from  its  pul 
pits.  He  betook  himself  to  its  jails,  alms-houses,  and 
public  grounds,  where  the  common  people  "heard 
him  gladly."  He  went  to  the  neighboring  Kings- 
wood  Mines,  and  there  began  that  reformation  and 
evangelization  of  the  colliers  of  England,  which  has 


EARLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  49 

been  one  of  the  greatest  honors  of  Methodism. 
The  miners  came  forth  unwashed  from  their  caverns 
and  crowded  about  him  to  hear  his  open-air  sermons, 
weeping  till  their  tears  traced  "  white  gutters  "  down 
their  cheeks.  All  the  surrounding  country  felt  the 
sensation  of  his  wonderful  eloquence,  and  his  con 
gregations  "on  the  mounts"  comprised  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands ;  "  the  hedges  and  trees  were 
full."  His  sonorous  voice  rung  to  their  utmost 
limit;  they  stood  "in  an  awful  manner  around  the 
mount,"  hushed  into  profound  silence,  and  he  was 
reminded  by  the  spectacle  of  "  the  scene  of  the 
general  assembly  "  of  the  last  day.  He  sent  to  Lon 
don  for  Wesley,  who,  on  arriving,  scrupled  as  a  rigid 
churchman  about  "out-door  preaching."  But  he 
soon  saw  that  it  was  a  providential  necessity.  What 
else  could  he  and  his  associates  do?  The  churches 
were  closed  against  them,  and  the  people  were 
perishing  in  ignorance  and  vice.  He  followed 
Whitefield's  example,  and  having  once  preached  in 
the  open  air,  he  had  crossed  the  Eubicon,  never  to 
retreat.  Field  preaching,  with  all  its  consequences, 
was  now  to  be  the  first  great  practical  measure  of 
Methodism,  and  with  it  the  whole  realm  was  to  be 
stirred. 

Whitefield,  leaving  Wesley  among  the  blackened 
colliers  of  Kingswood,  hastened  into  Wales,  where 

Ilowell  Harris,  a  young  man  who  had  been  driven 

4 


50  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

from  Oxford  University  by  its  infidelity  and  its 
scoffings  at  his  religious  earnestness,  was  going  to 
and  fro  preaching  in  its  villages,  though  he  was  not 
in  Holy  Orders.  His  example  seemed  a  strange,  a 
providential  coincidence  with  the  new  movement 
at  London,  Bristol,  and  Kings  wood.  "Whitefield 
seized  his  hand  and  bade  him  "  God  speed."  They 
traversed  the  principality  together,  preaching  in 
churches,  in  the  grave-yards,  in  the  market-places, 
on  the  mountain  sides.  Other  evangelists  co-oper 
ated  with  them,  chiefly  Griffith  Jones,  and  Daniel 
Rowlands  "  the  "Welsh  thunderer."  "Wales,  which  had 
been  as  demoralized  as  any  other  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  was  thoroughly  aroused  by  these  itiner 
ants,  and  rose  as  in  a  moral  resurrection  under  the 
subsequent  labors  of  Methodism.  The  new  denomi 
nation,  distinguished  into  two  sections,  as  Calvinistic 
and  Arminian,  now  predominates  in  the  country. 
Wales  had  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  but 
twenty-three  dissenting  Churches ;  they  have  multi 
plied  to  twenty-five  hundred ;  more  than  twelve  hund 
red  of  them  are  Methodistic.  A  chapel  dots  every 
three  square  miles  of  its  territory,  and  over  a  million 
of  people,  nearly  the  whole  population,  attend  public 
worship  some  part  of  every  Sunday.  Wales  has  been 
religiously  renovated  by  the  Methodistic  movement. 
Whitefield  returned  to  London,  where  he  and 
Wesley  took  the  open  .  field  at  Moorfields  and 


EAKLY  PKOGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  51 

Kennington  Common.  Their  congregations  were 
estimated  at  twenty,  forty,  sometimes  fifty  thou 
sand.  The  singing  of  the  vast  multitudes  could 

ft 

be  heard  two  miles  off,  Whitefield's  voice  a  mile. 
The  lowest  masses  of  the  neglected  people  were 
thus  invaded  by  the  Gospel ;  hundreds  and  thousands 
were  reclaimed  to  virtue  and  piety  and  incorporated 
in  the  London  "  Societies."  It  was  not  long  before 
the  evangelists  were  abroad  in  all  England,  Scotland, 
"Wales,  and  Ireland,  surprising  and  arousing  the 
Churches,  and  the  population  generally,  by  their 
unwonted  measures  and  zeal,  and  thus  was  inaugu 
rated  the  greatest  "  religious  revival "  of  modern  ages. 
Lay  preachers  were  rapidly  raised  up  from  among 
the  converts  of  the  movement:  Thomas  Maxfield, 
Thomas  Richards,  Thomas  Westell,  John  Nelson, 
and  others,  the  pioneers  of  that  army  of  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  lay  itinerants  whose  proc 
lamation  of  the  truth  has  since  resounded  through 
much  of  both  hemispheres,  and  is  daily  sounding 
further  and  further  toward  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Like  their  great  leaders,  they  traveled  over  the  realm 
preaching  by  day  and  by  night.  Their  artless  but 
earnest  ministry  secured  the  attention  of  the  com 
mon  people,  and  it  was  apparent  that  they  wielded 
a  power  which  belonged  not  to  the  established  pul 
pit.  Wesley  as  their  superintendent  and  guide  was 
almost  ubiquitous  in  the  land,  preaching  twice  or 


52  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

thrice  daily,  beginning  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing.  "Societies"  were  formed  in  order  to  bring 
their  numerous  converts  into  relations  of  Christian 
communion  and  discipline.  Being  excluded  from 
the  churches,  they  were  compelled  to  meet  in  the 
open  air  till  they  began  the  erection  of  chapels.  On 
May  12,  1739,  the  foundations  of  the  first  Methodist 
chapel  in  the  world  were  laid,  with  prayers  and  songs  of 
praise,  at  Bristol ;  in  November  of  the  same  year,  the 
"  Foundry,"  in  London,  was  consecrated.  The  former 
was  begun  first,  though  the  latter  was  opened  first. 
Wesley  had  no  thought  yet  of  a  sect  or  a  schism  ;  he 
was  a  stanch  churchman;  he  opened  these  edifices 
as  temporary  accommodations  of  his  converts,  and 
only  because  the  clergy  of  the  establishment  com 
pelled  him  to  do  so,  by  excluding  him  and  his  asso 
ciates  from  its  pulpits  and  sacramental  altars.  The 
chapel  in  Bristol  bore  the  humble  name  of  "The 
Preaching  House,"  that  in  London  its  former  title  of 
the  "  Old  Foundry." 

The  year  in  which  these  chapels  were  opened  is 
considered  to  be  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  In  his 
"  Church  History,"  Wesley  assigns  it  other  dates,  as 
the  formation  of  "the  Holy  Club,"  at  Oxford,  in 
1729 ;  and  the  meeting  of  himself  and  others,  by  the 
advice  of  Peter  Bohler,  in  Fetter  Lane,  May  1,  1738 ; 
but  in  his  introduction  to  the  "  General  Rules  of  the 
Society,"  he  says,  "In  the  latter  end  of  the  year 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  53 

1739,  eight  or  ten  persons  came  to  me  in  London 
and  desired  that  I  would  spend  some  time  with  them 
in  prayer,  and  advise  them  how  to  flee  from  the 
wrath  to  come ;  this  was  the  rise  of  the  UNITED 
SOCIETY."  "  This,"  he  tells  us,  "  was  soon  after  the 
consecration  of  the  Foundry."  Twelve  came  the 
first  night,  forty  the  next,  and  soon  after  a  hundred. 
Though  he  continued  in  fraternal  relations  with  the 
Moravian  "Societies"  at  London,  till  July  20,  1740, 
the  society,  formed  the  preceding  year,  was  organized 
and  controlled  by  himself,  and  has  continued  in  un 
broken  succession  down  to  our  day.  The  date  of  its 
origin  was  celebrated  with  centenary  solemnities  by 
all  the  Methodist  communities  of  the  world  in  1839. 
It  was  signalized  not  only  by  the  organization  of  the 
Society,  by  the  opening  of  the  Foundry  for  worship, 
and  by  the  erection  at  Bristol  of  the  first  Methodist 
chapel,  but  by  the  organization  of  "  Bands  "  in  that 
city,  and  the  publication,  by  the  Wesley s,  of  their 
"  Hymns  and  Sacred  Poems,"  the  beginning  of  that 
Methodistic  psalmody  which  has  since  been  of  inesti 
mable  service  to  the  denomination,  wherever  it  has 
extended,  as  its  virtual  liturgy. 

It  was  not  long  before  "societies,"  and  chapels 
or  "  preaching  houses,"  as  they  were  unpretentiously 
called,  began  to  rise  more  or  less  in  all  parts  of  the 
country.  Hostilities  also  arose;  mobs  assailed  the 
itinerants;  their  chapels  were  pulled  down:  for 


54  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

months,  and  even  for  years,  riots  were  of  almost 
constant  occurrence.  In  some  sections  the  rabble 
moved  in  hosts  from  village  to  village,  attacking 
preachers  and  people,  destroying  not  only  the 
churches,  but  the  homes  of  Methodists.  In  Staf 
fordshire  "  the  whole  region  was  in  a  state  little 
short  of  civil  war."  In  Darlaston,  Charles  "Wesley 
could  distinguish  the  houses  of  the  Methodists  by 
their  marks  of  violence  as  he  rode  through  the  town. 
At  "Walsall  he  saw  the  flag  of  the  rioters  waving 
in  the  market-place,  their  headquarters.  In  Lich- 
field  "all  the  rabble  of  the  country  was  gathered 
together,  and  laid  waste  all  before  them."  The 
storm  swept  over  nearly  all  Cornwall.  Newcastle 
was  in  tumult.  In  London  even  occurred  formidable 
mobs.  In  Cork  and  Dublin  they  prevailed  almost 
beyond  the  control  of  the  magistrates.  Methodism 
had,  in  fine,  to  fight  its  way  over  nearly  every  field 
it  entered  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  The  clergy 
and  the  magistrates  were  often  the  instigators  of 
these  tumults.  Not  a  few  of  the  itinerants  were 
imprisoned,  or  impressed  into  the  army  and  the 
navy;  some  were  martyred.  But  the  devoted  suf 
ferers  held  on  their  way  till  they  conquered  the 
mob,  and  led  it  by  thousands  to  their  humble  altars. 
Ho  well  Harris,  amid  storms  of  persecution,  succeeded, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  planting  Methodism  in  Wales, 
where  it  has  elevated  the  popular  religious  condi- 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  55 

tion,  once  exceedingly  low,  above  that  of  Scotland. 
Wesley  traversed  Ireland  as  well  as  Great  Britain. 
He  crossed  the  channel  forty-two  times,  making 
twenty-one  visits ;  and  Methodism  has  yielded  there 
some  of  its  best  fruits.  Whitefield,  known  as  a  Cal- 
vinist,  and  forming  no  societies,  was  received  in  Scot 
land.  His  congregations  were  immense,  filling  val 
leys  or  covering  hills,  and  his  influence  quickened 
into  life  its  Churches.  He  continued  to  aid  Harris 
in  founding.  Calvinistic  Methodism  in  "Wales.  The 
whole  evangelical  dissent  of  England  still  feels  his 
power.  With  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  he 
founded  the  Calvinistic  Methodism  of  Great  Britain ; 
but  such  was  the  moral  unity  of  both  parties,  the 
Arminian  and  the  Calvinistic,  that  the  essential 
unity  of  the  general  Methodistic  movement  was 
maintained,  awakening  to  a  great  extent  the  spirit 
ual  life  of  both  the  national  Church  and  of  the  Non 
conformists,  and  producing  most  of  those  "  Chris 
tian  enterprises"  by  which  British  piety  has  since 
been  spreading  its  influence  around  the  globe.  The 
British  Bible  Society,  most  of  the  British  Missionary 
Societies,  Tract  Societies,  the  Sunday-school,  religious 
periodicals,  cheap  popular  literature,  negro  emanci 
pation,  Exeter  Hall  with  its  public  benefits  and  fol 
lies,  all  arose  directly  or  indirectly  from  the  impulse 
of  Methodism. 

Whitefield  crossed  the  Atlantic  thirteen  times  and 


56  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

journeyed  incessantly  through  the  colonies,  passing 
and  repassing  from  Georgia  to  Maine  like  a  "flame 
of  fire."  The  Congregational  Churches  of  New  En 
gland,  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Baptists  of  the 
Middle  States,  and  the  mixed  colonies  of  the  South, 
owe  their  later  religious  life  and  energy  mostly  to 
the  impulse  given  by  his  powerful  ministrations. 
The  "great  awakening"  under  Edwards  had  not 
only  subsided  before  Whitefield's  arrival,  but  had 
reacted.  "Whitefield  restored  it;  and  the  New  En 
gland  Churches  received  under  his  labors  an  inspira 
tion  of  zeal  and  energy  which  has  never  died  out. 
He  extended  the  revival  from  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  the  Eastern  to  the  Presbyterian  Churches 
of  the  Middle  States.  In  Pennsylvania  and  New 
Jersey,  where  Frelinghuysen,  Blair,  Rowland,  and 
the  two  Tennents  had  been  laboring  with  evangelical 
zeal,  he  was  received  as  a  prophet  from  God,  and  it 
was  then  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  took  that 
attitude  of  evangelical  power  and  aggression  which 
has  ever  since  characterized  it.  These  faithful  men 
had  begun  a  humble  ministerial  school  in  a  log- 
cabin  "  twenty  feet  long  and  nearly  as  many  broad." 
"The  work  is  of  God,"  said  Whitefield,  "and  there 
fore  cannot  come  to  naught."  The  fame  of  Prince 
ton  has  verified  his  prediction.  "  Nassau  Hall  re 
ceived  a  Methodistic  baptism  at  its  birth ;  Whitefield 
inspirited  its  founders,  and  was  honored  by  it  with 


EAELY  PKOGEESS  IN  ENGLAND.  57 

the  title  of  A.M. ;  the  Methodists  in  England  gave 
it  funds  ;  and  one  of  its  noblest  presidents  (Davies) 
was  a  correspondent  of  "Wesley,  and  honored  him  as 
a  l  restorer  of  the  true  faith.' ':  Dartmouth  College 
arose  from  the  same  impulse.  It  received  its  chief 
early  funds  from  the  British  Methodists,  and  bears 
the  name  of  one  of  their  chief  Calvinistic  associates, 
whom  Cowper  celebrated  as  "  The  one  who  wore  a 
coronet  and  prayed."  "Whitefield's  preaching,  and 
especially  the  reading  of  his  printed  sermons  in  Yir- 
ginia,  led  to  the  founding  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  that  state,  whence  it  has  extended  to  the  South 
and  South-west.  "  The  stock  from  which  the  Baptists 
of  Virginia  and  those  in  all  the  South  and  South-west 
have  sprung  was  also  "Whitefieldian."  The  founder 
of  the  Freewill  Baptists  of  the  United  States  was 
converted  under  the  last  preaching  of  Whitefield. 

Such  are  but  glimpses  of  the  progress  of  British 
Methodism  before  its  organization  in  America.  It 
became  apparent  that  a  new  epoch  had  occurred  in 
the  history  of  English  Christianity.  Under  the  in 
fluence  of  Whitefield  and  the  Countess  of  Hunting 
don  the  Calvinistic  nonconformity  of  the  realm  arose 
as  from  the  dead  to  new  life,  which  has  continued 
ever  since  with  increasing  energy;  by  the  same 
means,  with  the  co-operation  of  Wesley,  a  powerful 
evangelical  party  was  raised  up  in  the  Establishment, 
and  most  of  the  measures  of  evangelical  propagand- 


58  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

ism  which  have  since  kept  British  Christianity  alive 
with  energy,  and  have  extended  its  activity  to  the 
foreign  world,  are  distinctly  traceable  to  this  great 
"revival."  Meanwhile  its  reformatory  power  among 
the  English  common  people  had  become  unquestion 
able  and  marvelous  to  all  candid  observers.  It  has 
been  remarked  that  at  about  the  end  of  its  first 
decade  a  scarcely  paralleled  religious  interest  had 
been  spread  and  sustained  throughout  the  United 
Kingdom  and  along  the  Atlantic  coast  of  America. 
Not  only  had  the  -Churches  of  both  countries  been 
extensively  reawakened,  but  the  great  fact  of  a  Lay 
Ministry  had  been  accomplished — great  not  only  in  its 
direct  results,  but  perhaps  more  so  by  its  reacting 
shock,  in  various  respects,  against  the  ecclesiasticism 
which  for  fifteen  hundred  years  had  fettered  Christi 
anity  with  bands  of  iron.  It  had  presented  before 
the  world  the  greatest  pulpit  orator  of  the  age,  if 
not  of  any  age — Whitefield ;  also  one  of  the  greatest 
religious  legislators  of  history — Wesley;  a  hymnist 
whose  supremacy  has  been  but  doubtfully  disputed 
by  a  single  rival — Charles  Wesley ;  and  the  most 
signal  example  of  female  agency  in  religious  affairs 
which  Christian  history  records — the  Countess  of 
Huntingdon.  The  lowest  abysses  of  the  English 
population  among  colliers  and  miners  had  been 
reached  by  the  Gospel.  Calvinistic  Methodism  was 
restoring  the  decayed  nonconformity  of  England. 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  59 

Wesleyan  Methodism,  though  adhering  to  the  Estab 
lishment,  had  taken  an  organic  and  permanent  form ; 
it  had  its  Annual  Conferences,  Quarterly  Conferences, 
Class  Meetings  and  Band  Meetings ;  its  "Watch-nights 
and  Love-feasts;  its  Traveling  Preachers,  Local 
Preachers,  Exhorters,  Leaders,  Trustees,  and  Stew 
ards.  It  had  districted  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland 
into  Circuits  for  systematic  ministerial  labors,  and  now 
commanded  a  ministerial  force  of  about  seventy  men. 
It  had  fought  its  way  through  incredible  persecutions 
and  riots,  and  had  won  at  last  a  general,  though  not 
universal  peace.  Its  Chapels  and  Preachers'  houses, 
or  parsonages,  were  multiplying  over  the  country. 
It  had  a  rich  Psalmody,  which  has  since  spread  wher 
ever  the  English  tongue  is  used ;  and  a  well-defined 
Theology,  distinguished  by  two  notable  features  that 
could  not  fail  to  secure  popular  interest,  namely,  that 
it  transcended  the  prevalent  creeds  in  both  spirituality 
and  liberality ;  in  its  experimental  doctrines  of  Con 
version,  Sanctification,  and  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit, 
and  in  the  evangelical  liberalism  of  its  Arminian- 
ism.  It  had  begun  its  present  scheme  of  Popular 
Eeligious  Literature,  had  provided  the  first  of  that 
series  of  Academic  institutions  which  has  since  ex 
tended  with  its  progress,  and  was  contemplating  a 
plan  of  Ministerial  Education,  which  has  been  effect 
ively  accomplished.  Already  the  despondent  decla 
rations  of  Watts,  Seeker,  and  Butler,  respecting  the 


60  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

prospects  of  religion,  might  be  pronounced  no  longer 
relevant.  Yet  Watts  had  been  dead  but  two  years, 
and  Seeker  and  Butler  still  survived. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  decade,  the  year  in  which 
it  sent  its  first  missionaries  to  America,  it  enrolled 
more  than  twenty-eight  thousand  members  and  one 
hundred  and  twelve  lay  traveling  preachers,  besides 
the  Wesleys  and  their  clerical  coadjutors. 

Wesley  lived  -to  see  his  cause  established  in  the 
United  States  with  an  episcopal  organization,  planted 
in  the  British  North  American  Provinces,  and  in  the 
West  Indies,  and  died  at  last,  in  1791,  with  his 
system  apparently  completed,  universally  effective 
and  prosperous,  sustained  by  five  hundred  and  fifty 
itinerant  and  thousands  of  local  preachers,  and  more 
than  a  hundred  and  forty  thousand  members,  and  so 
energetic  that  many  men,  who  had  been  his  co-labor 
ers,  lived  to  see  it  the  predominant  body  of  Dissenters 
in  the  United  Kingdom  and  the  British  Colonies, 
the  most  numerous  Church  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  successfully  planted  on  most  of  the 
outlines  of  the  missionary  world. 

In  1839  was  celebrated  the  hundredth  anniversary 
of  English  Methodism.  The  English  Methodists 
appointed  the  25th  of  October  as  a  day  of  festive 
religious  observance  throughout  their  Churches  in 
all  parts  of  the  world.  Pecuniary  contributions  for 
certain  great  interests  of  the  Church  were  called  for, 


EAKLY   PROGRESS  IN  ENGLAND.  61 

and  the  call  was  answered  by  a  liberality  never  before 
equaled  in  any  one  instance  in  their  history,  if,  in 
deed,  in  the  history  of  any  other  Christian  body. 
The  Wesleyans  gave  one  million  and  eighty  thousand 
dollars.  The  American  Methodists  gave  six  hund 
red  thousand.  On  the  appointed  day  Methodists 
throughout  the  earth  met  in  their  temples  to  thank 
God  for  his  blessings  upon  the  first  cycle  of  their  his 
tory.  Signal  indeed  had  been  those  blessings.  Wes 
ley,  as  we  have  seen,  died  in  1791,  at  the  head  of  a  host 
of  550  itinerant  preachers,  and  140,000  communicants 
in  the  United  Kingdom,  the  British  Provinces,  in 
the  United  States,  and  the  West  Indies ;  at  the  cen 
tenary,  less  than  half  a  century  later,  the  denomina 
tion  had  grown  to  more  than  1,171,000,  including 
about  5,200  itinerant  preachers,  in  the  Wesleyan 
and  Methodist  Episcopal  Churches ;  and,  comprising 
the  various  bodies  bearing  the  name  of  Methodists, 
.to  an  army  of  more  than  1,400,000,  of  whom  6,080 
were  itinerant  preachers.  Its  missionaries,  accredited 
members  of  Conferences,  were  about  three  hundred 
and  fifty,  with  nearly  an  equal  number  of  salaried, 
and  about  three  thousand  unpaid  assistants.  They 
occupied  about  three  hundred  stations,  each  station 
being  the  head  of  a  circuit.  They  were  laboring  in 
Sweden,  Germany,  France,  Cadiz,  Gibraltar,  Malta, 
Western  and  Southern  Africa,  Ceylon,  continental 
India,  New  South  Wales,  Yan  Dieman's  Land,  New 


62  CENTENAKY  OF  AMEKICAN   METHODISM. 

Zealand,  Tonga,  Habai  Islands,  Yavou  Islands,  Fiji 
Islands,  the  "West  Indies.  They  had  under  instruc 
tion  in  their  mission  schools  about  fifty  thousand 
pupils,  and  in  their  mission  Churches  were  more 
than  seventy  thousand  communicants.  At  least  two 
hundred  thousand  persons  heard  the  Gospel  regu 
larly  in  their  mission  chapels.  The  Methodist  mis 
sionaries  were  now  more  numerous  than  the  whole 
Wesley  an  ministry  as  enrolled  on  the  Minutes  of 
Wesley's  last  Conference,  and  their  missionary  com 
municants  were  about  equal  to  the  whole  number 
of  Methodists  in  Europe  at  that  day.  Wesley  pre 
sided  over  Methodism  during  its  first  half  century 
and  two  years  more;  during  the  remainder  of  the 
century  it  reproduced,  in  its  missions  alone,  the 
whole  numerical  force  of  its  first  half  century.  Thus 
far  it  had  demonstrated  its  providential  mission  as  a 
revival  of  apostolic  spiritual  life  and  apostolic  propa- 
gandism. 


EAELY  PROGRESS  IN  AMEEICA.  63 


CHAPTEE  II. 

ORIGIN,  FOUNDERS,  AND  PROGRESS  OF  METHODISM  IN 
AMERICA. 

THOUGH  Wesley  sent  no  missionaries  to  America 
till  1769,  the  true  epoch  of  American  Methodism 
dates  three  years  earlier. 

The  humbleness  of  its  origin,  contrasted  with  the 
greatness  of  its  results,  presents  perhaps  as  striking 
an  example  as  ecclesiastical  history  affords  since  the 
apostolic  age,  of  the  scriptural  truth,  that  "  God  hath 
chosen  the  weak  things,  of  the  world  to  confound  the 
things  which  are  mighty,  and  low  things  of  the 
world,  and  things  which  are  despised,  hath  God 
chosen,  yea,  and  things  which  are  not,  to  bring  to 
naught  things  that  are :  that  no  flesh  should  glory 
in  his  presence."  The  History  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  records  that,  in  1758,  John  Wes 
ley  visited  the  county  of  Limerick,  Ireland;  that 
his  Journal  reports  there  a  singular  community,  set 
tled  in  Court  Mattress,  and  in  Killiheen,  Balligar- 
rane,  and  Pallas,  villages  within  four  miles  of  Court 
Mattress;  that  they  were  not  native  Celts,  but  a 
Teutonic  population,  and  that  having  been  nearly 
half  a  century  without  pastors  who  could  speak  their 


64  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

language,  they  had  become  thoroughly  demoralized : 
noted  for  drunkenness,  profanity,  and  "  utter  neglect 
of  religion."  But  the  Methodist  itinerants  had  pene 
trated  to  their  hamlets,  and  they  were  now  a  re 
formed,  a  devout  people.  They  had  erected  a  large 
chapel  in  the  center  of  Court  Mattress.  "  So  did 
God  at  last  provide/'  writes  Wesley,  "  for  these  poor 
strangers  who,  for  fifty  years,  had  none  who  cared 
for  their  souls."  At  later  visits  he  declares  that 
three  such  towns  as  Court  Mattress,  Killiheen,  and 
Balligarrane  were  hardly  to  be  found  anywhere  else 
in  Ireland  or  England.  There  was  "no  cursing 
or  swearing,  no  Sabbath  breaking,  no  drunkenness, 
no  ale-house  in  any  of  them."  "  They  had  become 
a  serious,  thinking  people,  and  their  diligence  had 
turned  all  their  land  into  a  garden.  How  will 
these  poor  foreigners,"  he  adds,  "  rise  up  in  the 
day  of  judgment  against  those  that  are  round  about 
them ! "  But  the  most  interesting  fact  respecting 
this  obscure  colony  was  not  yet  apprehended  by 
"Wesley,  or  he  would  have  wondered  still  more  at 
their  providential  history.  The  Methodism  of  the 
]STew  World  was  already  germinating  among  them ; 
in  about  two  years  the  prolific  seed  was  to  be  trans 
planted  to  the  distant  continent,  and  at  the  time  of 
Wesley's  death  (about  thirty  years  later)  its  vigorous 
boughs  were  to  extend  over  the  land  from  Canada  to 
Georgia,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi,  shelter- 


EARLY    PROGRESS   IX    AMERICA.  65 

ing  more  than  sixty-three  thousand  Church  members, 
and  two  hundred  and  fifty  itinerant  preachers.  In 
about  thirty  years  after  Wesley's  death  (1820)  Ameri 
can  Methodism  was  to  advance  to  the  front  of  the 
great  "  movement  "  with  a  majority  of  more  than 
seventeen  thousand  over  the  parent  Church,  including 
all  its  foreign  dependencies,  and  thenceforward  the 
chief  numerical  triumphs  of  the  denomination  were 
to  be  in  the  western  hemisphere. 

The  "  Palatines,'-  as  these  German-Irishmen  are 
usually  called,  were  driven  from  the  Palatinate,  on 
the  Rhine,  by  the  Papal  troops  of  Louis  XIV.  They 
found  refuge  within  the  lines  of  Marlborough,  and 
were  provided  for  by  Queen  Anne,  some  in  England, 
some  in  Ireland,  some  in  America.  The  Teutonic 
Methodists  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  who  were  des 
tined  to  found  American  Methodism,  were  descend 
ants  of  the  persecuted  Protestants  whom  the  Papal 
zeal  of  the  Grand  Monarch  had  expatriated ;  his 
attempt  to  suppress  Protestantism  in  the  Palatinate 
led  thus  to  one  of  the  most  energetic  developments 
of  Protestantism  in  the  modern  history  of  religion. 
"  On  a  spring  morning  in  1760,"  says  an  Irish  writer, 
"  a  group  of  emigrants  might  have  been  seen  at  the 
custom-house  quay,  Limerick,  preparing  to  embark 
for  America.  At  that  time  emigration  was  not  so 
common  an  occurrence  as  it  is  now,  and  the  excite 
ment  connected  with  their  departure  was  intense. 


66  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

They  were  Palatines   from  Balligarrane,  and   were 
accompanied  to  the  vessel's  side  by  crowds  of  their 
companions  and  friends,  some  of  whom  had  come 
sixteen  miles   to  say   '  farewell '  for  the   last   time. 
One  of  those  about  to  leave — a  young  man,  with  a 
thoughtful   look   and  resolute  bearing — is  evidently 
the  leader  of  the  party,  and  more  than  an  ordinary 
pang  is  felt  by  many  as  they  bid  him  farewell.     He 
had  been  one  of  the  first-fruits  of  his  countrymen  to 
Christ,  had  been  the  leader  of  the  infant  Church,  and 
in  their  humble  chapel  had  often  ministered  to  them 
the  word  of  life.      He  is  surrounded  by  his  spiritual 
children  and  friends,  who  are  anxious  to  have  some 
parting  words  of  counsel  and  instruction.     He  enters 
the  vessel,  and  from  its  side  once  more  breaks  among 
them  the  bread  of  life.     And  now  the  last  prayer  is 
offered  ;  they  embrace  each  other ;  the  vessel  begins 
to  move.     As  she  recedes  uplifted  hands  and  uplifted 
hearts  attest  what  all  felt.     But  none  of  all  that  vast 
multitude  felt  more,  probably,  than  that  young  man. 
His  name  is  Philip  Embury.     His  party  consisted  of 
Ids  wife,  Mary  Switzer,  to  whom  he  had  been  mar 
ried  on  the  27th  of  November,  1758,  in  Rathkeale 
Church ;   two   of  his  brothers   and  their   families ; 
Peter  Switzer,  probably  a  brother  of  his  wife ;  Paul 
Heck,  and  Barbara  his  wife;  Yaler  Tettler;  Philip 
Morgan,  and  a  family  of  the  Dulmages.     The  vessel 
arrived  safely  in  New  York  on  the  10th  of  August, 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  67 

1760.  Who  that  pictures  before  his  mind  that  com 
pany  of  Christian  emigrants  leaving  the  Irish  shore 
but  must  be  struck  with  the  simple  beauty  of  the 
scene  ?  Yet  who  among  the  crowd  that  saw  them 
leave  could  have  thought  that  two  of  the  little  band 
were  destined,  in  the  mysterious  providence  of  God, 
to  influence  for  good  countless  myriads,  and  that 
their  names  should  live  long  as  the  sun  and  moon 
endure  ?  Yet  so  it  was.  That  vessel  contained 
Philip  Embury,  the  first  class-leader  and  local 
preacher  of  Methodism  on  the  American  continent, 
and  Barbara  Heck,  '  a  mother  in  Israel,'  one  of  its 
first  members,  the  germ  from  which,  in  the  good 
providence  of  God,  has  sprung  the  Methodist  Episco 
pal  Church  of  the  United  States ;  a  Church  which 
has  now  more  or  less  under  its  influence  about  seven 
millions  of  the  germinant  mind  of  that  new  and 
teeming  hemisphere !  £  There  shall  be  a  handful  of 
corn  in  the  earth  upon  the  top  of  the  mountains ; 
the  fruit  thereof  shall  shake  like  Lebanon  :  and  they 
of  the  city  shall  flourish  like  grass  of  the  earth.' ': 

In  1752  Philip  Embury  heard  John  Wesley  preach 
in  Ireland ;  and  of  the  same  year,  a  manuscript  frag 
ment,  in  his  own  hand-writing,  says,  "  On  Christmas 
Day,  being  Monday,  the  25th  December,  in  the  year 
1752,  the  Lord  shone  into  my  soul,  by  a  glimpse  of 
his  redeeming  love,  being  an  earnest  of  my  redemption 
in  Christ  Jesus,  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 


68  CENTENARY   OF   AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

Amen!"  He  was  respected  for  his  probity  and 
obliging  manners ;  lie  studied  the  elements  of  knowl 
edge  under  both  English  and  German  teachers,  and 
afterward  learned  the  craft  of  a  carpenter,  in  which, 
it  is  said,  he  became  skillful.  Soon  after  his  conver 
sion  he  was  licensed  as  a  local  preacher,  and  minis 
tered  to  his  countrymen  in  their  Irish  settlements. 
He  was  modest  and  shrunk  from  responsibility.  On 
arriving  at  New  York  it  is  probable,  though  not  cer 
tain,  that  he  endeavored  to  keep  up  the  religious 
communion  of  his  Methodist  fellow-immigrants  ;  but 
the  temptations  of  their  new  condition  prevailed 
against  him;  they  fell  away,  and  he  seems  to  have 
become  discouraged,  and  not  to  have  used  his  office 
as  a  "  local  preacher  "  till  the  autumn  of  1Y66.  Dr. 
Roberts,  who  has  made  this  part  of  our  history  a 
special  study,  says,  "  the  families  who  accompanied 
him  were  not  all  Wesleyans — only  a  few  of  them ;  the 
remainder  were  members  of  the  Protestant  Church  in 
Ireland,  but  made  no  profession  of  an  experimental 
knowledge  of  God,  in  the  pardon  of  sin  and  adoption. 
After  their  arrival  in  New  York,  with  the  exception 
of  Embury  and  three  or  four  others,  they  all  finally 
lost  their  sense  of  the  fear  of  God,  and  became  open 
worldlings.  Some  subsequently  fell  into  greater 
depths  of  sin  than  others.  Late  in  the  year  1765 
another  vessel  arrived  in  New  York,  bringing  over 
Paul  Buckle,  Luke  Rose,  Jacob  Heck,  Peter  Bark- 


EAELY  PROGRESS   IN  AMERICA.  69 

man,  and  Henry  "Williams,  with  their  families.  These 
were  Palatines,  some  of  them  relatives  of  Embury, 
and  others  his  former  friends  and  neighbors.  A  few 
of  them  only  were  Wesleyans.  Mrs.  Barbara  Heck, 
who  had  been  residing  in  New  York  since  1760, 
visited  them  frequently.  One  of  the  company,  Paul 
Ruckle,  was  her  eldest  brother.  It  was  when  visiting 
them  on  one  of  these  occasions  that  she  found  some 
of  the  party  engaged  in  a  game  of  cards  ;  there  is  no 
proof,  either  direct  or  indirect,  that  any  of  them  were 
Wesleyans,  and  connected  with  Embury.  Her  spirit 
was  roused,  and,  doubtless  emboldened  by  her  long 
and  intimate  acquaintance  with  them  in  Ireland,  she 
seized  the  cards,  threw  them  into  the  fire,  and  then 
most  solemnly  warned  them  of  their  danger  and 
duty.  Leaving  them,  she  went  immediately  to  the 
dwelling  of  Embury,  who.  was  her  cousin.  It  was 
located  upon  Barrack-street,  now  Park  Place.  After 
narrating  what  she  had  seen  and  done,  under  the 
influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  with  power  she 
appealed  to  him  to  be  no  longer  silent,  but  to  preach 
the  word  forthwith.  She  parried  his  excuses,  and 
urged  him  to  commence  at  once  in  his  own  house, 
and  to  his  own  people.  He  consented,  and  she  went 
out  and  collected  four  persons,  who,  with  herself,  con 
stituted  his  audience.  After  singing  and  prayer  he 
preached  to  them,  and  enrolled  them  in  a  class.  He 
continued  thereafter  to  meet  them  weekly.  Embury 


70  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

was  not  among  the  card-players,  nor  in  the   same 
house  with  them." 

Embury's  house  could  not  accommodate  all  the 
hearers  who  soon  flocked  to  it ;  he  hired  therefore  a 
larger  room  in  the  neighborhood,  providing  for  the 
rent  by  gratuitous  contributions,  and  preaching  with 
out  compensation.  In  a  short  time  he  had  organized 
"  two  classes,"  of  six  or  seven  members  each.  He 
extended  his  labors,  preaching  in  other  places, 
particularly  the  almshouse,  where  the  poor  heard 
him  gladly. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  next  year  the  humble 
pastor  and  his  congregation  were  surprised  by  the 
appearance  among  them  of  a  British  officer  in  his 
regimentals;  his  reverent  demeanor  soon  assured 
them  that  he  had  come  not  to  interfere  with, 
but  to  share  their  worship.  At  its  close  he  intro 
duced  himself  as  Captain  Thomas  Webb,  "  of  the 
King's  service,  but  also  a  soldier  of  the  Cross,  and  a 
spiritual  son  of  John  Wesley."  They  were  over 
joyed,  and  hailed  him  as  a  "  brother  beloved."  The 
good  captain  had  fought  at  Louisburg  and  at  Quebec ; 
at  the  latter  he  had  been  wounded  in  the  arm,  and 
at  the  former  had  lost  his  right  eye,  over  which  he 
now  wore  a  shade.  After  these  perils  he  returned 
to  England  and  heard  Wesley  preach  in  Bristol ;  he 
became  a  regenerated  man,  and  was  licensed  by  Wes 
ley  as  a  local  preacher.  During  the  remainder  of 


EAELY  PROGKESS  IN  AMERICA.  71 

his  life  lie  was  one  of  the  most  active  evangelists  of 
Methodism,    preaching    in    England,   Ireland,    and 
America  till  his  death  in  1796.     Asbury  called  him 
"  an  Israelite  indeed."    "  He  is  a  man  of  fire,"  wrote 
"Wesley,  "  and  the   power  of  God  constantly  accom 
panies  his   word."     He   heard   Webb   in    the    Old 
Foundry,  London,  and  writes,  "I   admire  the  wis 
dom  of  God  in  still   raising  up  various  preachers, 
according  td  the  various  tastes  of  men.     The  captain 
is  all  life  and  fire ;  therefore  although  he  is  not  deep 
or  regular,  yet  many,  who  would  not  hear  a  better 
preacher,  flock  to  hear  him,  and  many  are  convinced 
under  his  preaching."     He  records,  again,  that  he 
had  "kindled  a  flame"  in  Bath,  "and  it  has  not  yet 
gone  out."     "  I  found  his  preaching  in  the  street  in 
"Winchester  had  been  blessed   greatly.     Many  were 
more  or  less  convinced  of  sin,  and  several  had  found 
peace  with  God.     I  never  saw  the  house  before  so 
crowded  with  serious  and   attentive  hearers."     For 
eleven    or  twelve  years  we  catch    glimpses  of  the 
military  evangelist  in  the  Journals  of  Wesley.     The 
last  of  them  is  in   1785,  when,  being  at  Salisbury, 
where  the  captain   had   recently  preached,  he  "en 
deavored   to   avail   himself  of  the  fire  which"  that 
veteran  "  seldom   failed    to    kindle."      Fletcher    of 
Madeley  appreciated  him,  and  tried  hard  with  him 
to  induce  Benson,  the  commentator,  to  throw  him 
self  into   the    Methodistic   movement  in  America. 


72  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

Fletcher  himself,  doubtless  by  the  influence  of  Webb, 
had  strong  thoughts  of  doing  so,  but  his  health  for 
bade  it.  The  allusions  to  Webb  in  the  cotemporary 
publications  of  Methodism  show  that  he  was  a  man  of 
profound  piety.  "  He  experienced  much  of  the  power 
of  religion  in  his  own  soul,"  says  an  itinerant  who 
usually  lodged  at  his  home  in  England ;  "  he  wres 
tled  day  and  night  with  God  for  that  degree  of  grace 
which  he  stood  in  need  of  that  he  might  stand  firm 
as  the  beaten  anvil  to  the  stroke,  and  he  was  favored 
with  those  communications  from  above  which  made 
him  bold  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  His 
evidence  of  the  favor  of  God  was  so  bright  that  he 
never  lost  a  sense  of  that  blessed  truth,  '  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.'  For  him  to 
live  was  Christ,  to  die  was  gain."  John  Adams,  the 
statesman  of  the  American  Revolution  and  President 
of  the  Republic,  heard  him  with  admiration,  and 
describes  him  as  "  the  old  soldier,  one  of  the  most 
eloquent  men  I  ever  heard ;  he  reaches  the  imagina 
tion  and  touches  the  passions  very  well,  and  ex 
presses  himself  with  great  propriety."  By  another 
hearer  he  is  spoken  of  as  "a  perfect  Whitefield  in 
declamation."  A  high  Methodist  authority,  who 
knew  the  captain  well,  says,  "  They  saw  the  warrior 
in  his  face,  and  heard  the  missionary  in  his  voice. 
Under  his  holy  eloquence  they  trembled,  they  wept, 
and  fell  down  under  his  mighty  word."  One  of 


EAELY   PROGRESS   IN  AMERICA.  73 

Wesley's  veterans,  who  was  intimate  with  the  cap 
tain,  and  who  read  the  funeral  service  over  his  coffin, 
says,  "  Great  multitudes  crowded  to  hear  him,  and  a 
vast  number  in  different  places  owned  him  for  their 
spiritual  father.  His  ministry  was  plain,  but  re 
markably  powerful ;  he  wras  truly  a  Boanerges,  and 
often  made  the  stout-hearted  tremble." 

Such  was  the  stranger  in  uniform,  wrhose  6ud- 
den  appearance  startled  the  little  assembly  of  Em 
bury's  hearers.  He  had  heard  of  them  at  Albany, 
where  he  had  lived  a  short  time  before  as  barrack- 
master,  and  where  he  had  opened  his  house  for 
religious  services,  conducted  by  himself.  He  had 
hastened  to  New  York  to  encourage  the  struggling 
society.  Following  the  custom  of  the  times,  he 
always  wore  his  military  dress  in  public.  He 
preached  in  it,  with  his  sword  lying  on  the  table 
or  desk  before  him.  The  populace  were  attracted 
by  the  spectacle,  and  soon  crowded  the  preaching- 
room  beyond  its  capacity.  A  rigging  loft,  sixty  feet 
by  eighteen,  on  William-street,  was  rented  in  1767. 
Here  Webb  and  Embury  preached  thrice  a  week  to 
crowded  assemblies.  "  It  could  not  contain  half  the 
people  who  desired  to  hear  the  word  of  the  Lord." 

A  chapel  was  necessary.  Barbara  Heck,  the  real 
foundress  of  American  Methodism,  and  who,  from 
the  day  that  she  recalled  Embury  to  his  duty,  had 
guarded  the  incipient  cause  with  the  vigilance  of  a 


74  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

priestess,  was  the  first  to  suggest  such  a  provision ; 
Webb  seconded  her  proposal.  She  even  submitted  a 
plan  of  the  humble  edifice,  one  which  she  believed 
God  approved  and  had  suggested  to  her  while  pray 
ing  on  the  subject.  "  I  the  Lord  will  do  it,"  was 
the  response  to  her  supplication,  which  seemed  to 
come  to  her  by  inspiration.  A  site  on  John-street, 
ever  since  sacred,  was  leased  in  1768,  and  purchased 
two  years  later.  Subscriptions  were  made  extens 
ively  through  the  city  for  the  expense  of  the 
modest  edifice.  Embury  was  first  on  the  list  of  its 
trustees ;  he  had  the  honor  of  being  first  preacher, 
first  class-leader,  first  treasurer,  and  first  trustee  of 
the  first  society  of  Methodism  in  the  "Western  hemi 
sphere.  The  chapel  was  of  stone,  faced  with  blue 
plaster,  sixty  feet  by  forty-two.  Embury  seems  to 
have  been  its  chief  architect;  and  he  labored  upon 
it  by  the  side  of  the  humblest  mechanic.  On  the 
30th  of  October,  1768,  he  ascended  its  pulpit,  made 
by  his  own  hands,  and  dedicated  the  building  with  a 
sermon  on  Hosea  x,  12,  "  Sow  to  yourselves  in 
righteousness,  reap  in  mercy,  break  up  your  fallow 
ground,  for  it  is  time  to  seek  the  Lord,  till  he  come 
and  reign  righteousness  upon  you."  The  population 
of  the  city  was  about  twenty  thousand,  not  too  large 
for  a  general  recognition  of  the  fact  that  Methodism 
had  now  its  monumental  edifice,  however  humble, 
in  the  midst  of  them,  and  John-street  chapel  has 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  75 

ever  since  been,  not  only  a  sacred  memorial  of  the 
denomination,  but  has  become  one  of  the  most  ven 
erable  monuments  of  the  city.  It  was  immediately 
thronged  with  hearers,  and  Embury  and  Webb  were 
its  diligent  preachers.  In  about  half  a  year  after 
its  dedication  an  American  correspondent  of  "Wesley 
wrote,  "  the  Lord  carries  on  a  very  great  work  by 
those  two  men." 

"Webb  made  frequent  excursions  to  other  parts  of 
the  country,  and  soon  became  the  principal  founder 
of  American  Methodism.  He  spent  some  time 
preaching  at  Jamaica,  Long  Island,  where  at  least 
"  twenty-four  persons  received  justifying  grace." 
He  passed  often  through  New  Jersey  and  formed 
Societies  in  its  chief  towns.  He  was  the  first  Meth 
odist  who  preached  in  Philadelphia,  where,  in  1767 
or  1768,  he  formed  a  "  class"  of  seven  members,  in 
a  sail  loft,  which,  as  in  New  York  and  later  in 
Baltimore,  was  for  some  time  the  only  temple  of  the 
infant  cause.  His  zeal  and  liberality  led  to  the 
purchase,  in  1770,  of  St.  George's  Church,  the  first 
Methodist  chapel  of  the  city.  In  1769  he  founded 
Methodism  in  Delaware,  preaching  in  Newcastle, 
"Wilmington,  and  the  forests  of  the  Brandy  wine.  He 
extended  his  labors  to  Baltimore;  he  corresponded 
with  Wesley,  entreating  him  to  send  out  missionaries 
to  the  new  field ;  after  some  were  sent  he  went  to 
England  to  obtain  a  reinforcement,  and  brought 


76  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

back  with  him,  in  1773,  Rankin  and  Shadford.  He 
plead  for  America  in  the  British  Conference  and  in 
the  Methodist  chapels  generally.  Down  to  the  out 
break  of  the  Revolution  he  was,  in  fine,  an  apostle 
to  the  New  World,  devoting  his  whole  time  here  for 
about  nine  years  to  Christian  labors.  After  his  final 
return  to  England  he  continued  to  preach  with  his 
early  fervor  and  power  till  December  20th,  1796, 
when  he  suddenly  died  at  Bristol,  where  he  sleeps 
beneath  the  pulpit  of  Portland  Chapel,  an  edifice 
which  was  erected  chiefly  through  his  own  exer 
tions.  A  monument  on  its  walls  commemorates 
him  as  "  brave — active — courageous — faithful — zeal 
ous — successful." 

Embury  continued  to  serve  the  John-street  society 
gratuitously  till  the  arrival  of  Wesley's  first  mission 
aries,  in  1769,  when  he  gladly  surrendered  to  them 
its  pulpit.  He  soon  after  emigrated  with  a  party  ot 
his  fellow-Methodists  to  the  town  of  Salem,  Wash 
ington  county,  New  York.  It  is  recorded  that  he 
there  continued  to  labor  as  a  local  preacher,  and 
formed  a  society,  chiefly  of  his  own  countrymen,  at 
Ashgrove,  the  first  Methodist  class  within  the  bounds 
of  the  Troy  Conference  which  in  our  day  reports 
more  than  twenty-five  thousand  communicants,  and 
more  than  two  hundred  traveling  preachers.  He 
was  held  in  high  estimation  by  his  neighbors,  and 
officiated  among  them  not  only  as  a  preacher,  but  as 


EARLY   PROGRESS   IN   AMERICA.  77 

a  magistrate.*  "While  mowing  in  his  field  in  1775, 
he  injured  himself  so  severely  as  to  die  suddenly, 
aged  but  forty-five  years,  "  greatly  beloved  and 
much,  lamented,"  says  Asbury.  He  was  buried  on 
the  neighboring  farm  of  his  Palatine  friend,  Peter 
Switzer.  After  reposing  fifty-seven  years  in  his  soli 
tary  grave  without  a  memorial,  his  remains  were 
disinterred  with  solemn  ceremonies,  and  borne  by  a 
large  procession  to  the  Ashgrove  burial  ground, 
where  their  resting-place  is  marked  by  a  monument, 
recording  that  he  "  was  the  first  to  set  in  motion  a 
train  of  measures  which  resulted  in  the  founding  of 
John-street  Church,  the  cradle  of  American  Meth 
odism,  and  the  introduction  of  a  system  which  has 
beautified  the  earth  with  salvation,  and  increased 
the  joys  of  heaven."  Some  of  his  family  emigrated 
to  Upper  Canada,  and,  with  the  family  of  Barbara 
Heck,  were  among  the  founders  of  Methodism  in 
that  province. 

About  the  time  that  Embury  and  Webb  were 
laying  the  foundations  of  the  denomination  in  New 
York,  Robert  Strawbridge  was  inaugurating  it  in 
Maryland.  Like  Embury,  he  also  was  an  Irishman, 
and  was  characterized  by  the  native  ardor  of  his 
countrymen.  He  was  eloquent,  and  a  melodious 

*  "In  a  map  (now  before  me)  of  the  Province  of  New  York,  copied 
from  a  London  map  dated  17*79,  that  locality  is  laid  off  as  a  manor, 
bearing  the  name  of  Embury." — Rev.  P.  P.  Harrower  to  the  Author, 


78  CENTENAKY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

singer;  he  loved  adventure  and  travel,  and  as  an 
evangelist  went  to  and  fro  preaching  night  and  day. 
He  arrived  in  this  country  at  some  time  between 
1760  and  1765,  and  settled  on  "  Sam's  Creek,"  in 
Frederick  county,  Maryland,  which  had  but  recently 
been  reclaimed  from  the  perils  of  savage  invasion. 
He  opened  his  house  for  preaching ;  formed  in  it  a 
Methodist  society ;  and,  not  long  after,  built  the 
"  Log  Meeting-house "  on  Sam's  Creek,  about  a  mile 
from  his  home.  He  buried  beneath  its  pulpit  two 
of  his  children.  It  was  a  rude  structure,  twenty-two 
feet  square,  and,  though  long  occupied,  was  never 
finished,  but  remained  without  windows,  door,  or 
floor.  "  The  logs  were  sawed  on  one  side  for  a 
door-way,  and  holes  were  made  on  the  other  three 
sides  for  windows."  He  became  virtually  an  itiner 
ant,  journeying  about  in  not  only  his  own  large 
county,  (then  comprehending  three  later  counties,) 
but  in  Eastern  Maryland,  Delaware,  Pennsylvania, 
and  Virginia  ;  preaching  with  an  ardor  and  a  fluency 
which  surprised  his  hearers,  and  drew  them  in  mul 
titudes  to  his  rustic  assemblies.  He  seemed  disposed 
literally  to  let  the  morrow,  if  not  indeed  the  day, 
take  care  of  itself.  His  frequent  calls  to  preach  in 
distant  parts  of  the  country  required  so  much  of 
his  time  that  his  family  were  likely  to  suffer  in  his 
absence,  so  that  it  became  a  question  with  him 
"  Who  will  keep  the  wolf  from  my  own  door  while 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  79 

I  am  abroad  seeking  after  the  lost  sheep?"  His 
neighbors,  appreciating  his  generous  zeal  and  self- 
sacrifice,  agreed  to  take  care  of  his  little  farm, 
gratuitously,  in  his  absence.  The  Sam's  Creek  Soci- 
3ty,  consisting  at  first  of  but  twelve  or  fifteen,  per 
sons,  was  a  fountain  of  good  influence  to  the  county 
and  the  state.  It  early  gave  four  or  five  preachers 
to  the  itinerancy.  Strawbridge  founded  Methodism 
in  Baltimore  and  Harford  counties.  The  first  Soci 
ety  in  the  former  was  formed  by  him  at  the  house 
of  Daniel  Evans,  near  the  city,  and  the  first  chapel 
of  the  county  was  erected  by  it.  The  first  native 
Methodist  preacher  of  the  continent,  Richard  Owen, 
was  one  of  his  converts  in  this  county ;  a  man 
who  labored  faithfully  and  successfully  as  a  local 
preacher  for  some  years,  and  who--  entered  the 
itinerancy  at  last,  and  died  in  it.  He  was  long  the 
most  effective  co-laborer  of  Strawbridge,  traveling 
the  country  in  all  directions,  founding  societies, 
and  opening  the  way  for  the  coming  itinerants. 
Owen's  temperament  was  congenial  with  that  of 
Strawbridge.  He  clung  to  the  hearty  Irishman  with 
tenacious  affection,  emulated  his  missionary  activity, 
and  at  last  followed  him  to  the  grave,  preaching  his 
funeral  service  to  a  "vast  concourse,"  under  a  large 
walnut  tree. 

Several  preachers  were  rapidly  raised  up  by  Straw- 
bridge  in  his  travels  in  Baltimore  and  Harford  conn- 


80  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

ties :  Sater  Stephenson,  Nathan  Perigo,  Richard 
Webster,  and  others ;  and  many  laymen,  whose  fami 
lies  have^  been  identified  with  the  whole  subsequent 
progress  of  Methodism  in  their  respective  localities, 
if  not  the  nation  generally.  "We  have  frequent 
intimations  of  his  labors  and  success  in  the  early 
biographies  of  Methodism,  but  they  are  too  vague 
to  admit  of  any  consecutive  narration  of  his  useful 
career.  We  discover  him  now  penetrating  into 
Pennsylvania,  and  then  arousing  the  population  of 
the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland  ;  now  bearing  the 
standard  into  Baltimore,  and  then,  with  Owen,  plant 
ing  it  successfully  in  Georgetown,  on  the  Potomac, 
and  in  other  places  in  Fairfax  county,  Virginia  ;  and 
by  the  time  that  the  regular  itinerancy  comes  effect 
ively  into  operation  in  Maryland,  a  band  of  preach 
ers,  headed  by  such  men  as  Watters,  Gatch,  Bowham, 
Haggerty,  Durbin,  Garrettson,  seem  to  have  been 
prepared,  directly  or  indirectly,  through  his  instru 
mentality,  for  the  more  methodical  prosecution  of  the 
great  cause.  We  find  his  own  name  in  the  Minutes 
in  1773  and  1775  as  an  itinerant.  We  trace  him 
at  last  to  the  upper  part  of  Long  Green,  Balti 
more  county,  where  an  opulent  and  generous  public 
citizen,  Captain  Charles  Ridgely,  who  admired  his 
character  and  sympathized  with  his  poverty,  gave 
him  a  farm,  free  of  rent,  for  life.  It  was  while 
residing  here,  "  under  the  shadow  of  Hampton,"  his 


EARLY  PROGRESS   IN  AMERICA.  81 

benefactor's  mansion,  that,  in  "  one  of  his  visiting 
rounds  to  his  spiritual  children,  he  was  taken  sick 
at  the  house  of  Joseph  "Wheeler^  and  died  in  great 
peace;"  probably  in  the  summer  of  1781.  Owen,  as 
has  been  remarked,  preached  his  funeral  sermon  in 
the  open  air,  to  a  great  throng,  "  under  a  tree  at  the 
north-west  corner  of  the  house."  Among  the  con 
course  were  a  number  of  his  old  Christian  neighbors, 
worshipers  in  the  "  Log  Chapel,"  to  whom  he  had 
been  a  Pastor  in  the  wilderness ;  they  bore  him  to 
the  tomb,  singing  as  they  marched  one  of  those  rap 
turous  lyrics  with  which  Charles  Wesley  taught  the 
primitive  Methodists  to  triumph  over  the  grave.  He 
sleeps  in  an  orchard  of  the  friend  at  whose  house  he 
died — one  of  his  own  converts — under  a  tree,  from 
the  foot  of  which  can  be  seen  the  great  city  which 
claims  him  as  its  Methodistic  apostle,  and  which,  ever 
since  his  day,  has  been  pre-eminent  among  American 

communities  for  its  Methodistic  strength  and  zeal. 

6 


EARLY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONARIES.         83 


CHAPTEE  III. 

EAKLY  EVANGELISTS  AND   MISSIONARIES. 

THE  news  of  the  success  of  Embury,  Webb,  and 
Strawbridge  reached  England  and  excited  no  little 
interest.  Wesley  was  pondering  the  expediency  of 
sending  out  missionaries  to  enter  the  opening  doors  ; 
but  meanwhile  some  zealous  evangelists,  impatient  of 
delay,  hastened  as  volunteers  to  the  new  field.  The 
first  of  them  was  Robert  Williams,  a  local  preacher, 
who  went  on  board  the  packet  for  America,  with  his 
saddle-bags,  a  bottle  of  milk,  and  a  loaf  of  bread,  but 
no  money  for  the  expense  of  the  voyage.  A  Meth 
odist  fellow-passenger  paid  the  latter.  On  arriving 
in  E~ew  York  (1769)  Williams  immediately  began  his 
mission  in  Embury's  Chapel,  and  thenceforward,  for 
about  six  years,  was  one  of  the  most  effective  pioneers 
of  American  Methodism :  "  the  first  Methodist  min 
ister  in  America  that  published  a  book,  the  first  that 
married,  the  first  that  located,  and  the  first  that  died." 
We  have  but  little  knowledge  of  his  career,  but  suf 
ficient  to  prove  that  he  had  the  fire  and  heroism  of 
the  original  itinerancy.  He  was  stationed  at  John- 
street  Church  some  time  in  1771.  He  labored  suc 
cessfully  with  Strawbridge  in  founding  the  new  cause 


84  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

in  Baltimore  county.  In  the  first  published  Confer 
ence  Minutes  he  is  appointed  to  Petersburgh,  Ya. 
"He  was  the  apostle  of  Methodism  in  Virginia." 
He  followed  Strawbridge  in  founding  it  in  1772  on 
the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland.  In  the  same  year 
he  appeared  in  Norfolk,  Ya.  Taking  his  stand  on 
the  steps  of  the  Court-house,  he  collected  a  congre 
gation  by  singing  a  hymn,  and  then  preached  with 
a  plainness  and  energy,  so  novel  among  them,  that 
they  supposed  he  was  insane.  ~No  one  invited  him 
home,  in  a  community  noted  for  hospitality;  they 
were  afraid  of  his  supposed  lunacy ;  but  on  hearing 
him  a  second  time  their  opinion  was  changed.  He 
was  received  to  their  houses,  and  soon  after  a  society 
was  formed  in  the  city,  the  germ  of  the  denomination 
in  the  state.  In  1773  he  traveled  in  various  parts  of 
Yirginia.  Jarrett,  an  apostolic  churchman,  and  after 
ward  a  notable  friend  of  the  Methodists,  encouraged 
his  labors,  and  entertained  him  a  week  at  his  parson 
age.  Williams  formed  the  first  circuit  of  Yirginia. 
A  signal  example  of  his  usefulness  (incalculable  in 
its  results)  was  the  conversion  of  Jesse  Lee.  He  was 
"  the  spiritual  father  "  of  this  heroic  itinerant,  the 
founder  of  Methodism  in  New  England.  "  Mr.  Lee's 
parents  opened  their  doors  for  him  to  preach.  They 
were  converted.  Two  of  their  sons  became  Method 
ist  ministers,  and  their  other  children  shared  largely 
in  the  blessings  of  the  Gospel,  which  he  proclaimed 


EARLY   EVANGELISTS  AND   MISSIONARIES.         85 

with  such  flaming  zeal,  holy  ardor,  and  great  success." 
The  religious  interest  excited  by  Williams's  labors 
soon  extended  into  North  Carolina,  and  opened  the 
way  for  the  southward  advancement  of  Methodism. 
He  bore  back  to  Philadelphia,  says  Asbury,  a  "  flam 
ing  account  of  the  work  in  Virginia :  many  of  the 
people  were  ripe  for  the  Gospel  and  ready  to  receive 
us."  He  returned,  taking  with  him  a  young  man 
named  William  Watters,  who  was  thus  ushered  into 
the  ministry,  and  has  ever  since  been  honored  as  the 
first  native  American  itinerant.*  Leaving  him  in  the 
field  already  opened,  Williams  went  himself  south- 
westward,  "  as  Providence  opened  the  way."  Sub 
sequently  he  bore  the  cross  into  North  Carolina.  He 
formed  a  six  weeks'  circuit  from  Petersburg!!  south 
ward,  over  the  Koanoke  River,  some  distance  into 
that  state,  and  thus  became  the  "  apostle  of  Method 
ism  "  in  North  Carolina,  as  well  as  Virginia.  Like 
most  of  the  itinerants  of  that  day,  he  located  after 
his  marriage,  and  settled  between  Norfolk  and  Suf 
folk,  where,  and  in  all  the  surrounding  regions,  he  con 
tinued  to  preach  till  his  death,  which  occurred  on  the 
26th  of  September,  1775.  Asbury  was  now  in  the 
country,  and  at  hand  to  bury  the  zealous  pioneer. 
He  preached  his  funeral  sermon,  and  records  in  his 

*  Owen  was  the  first  native  Methodist  preacher,  but  he  did  not 
join  the  conference  or  regular  itinerancy  till  after  "Watters  had  been 
received. 


86  CENTENAKY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Journal  the  highest  possible  eulogy  on  him.  "  He 
has  been  a  very  useful,  laborious  man.  The  Lord 
gave  many  seals  to  his  ministry.  Perhaps  no  one  in 
America  has  been  an  instrument  of  awakening  so 
many  souls  as  God  has  awakened  by  him."  "  He 
was  a  plain,  pointed  preacher,  indefatigable  in  his 
labors,"  says  a  historian  of  the  Church.  "  That 
pious  servant  of  the  Lord,"  says  Watters,  his  young 
fellow-traveler  in  the  South.  "  The  name  of  Robert 
"Williams,"  says  our  earliest  annalist,  "  still  lives  in 
the  minds  of  many  of  his  spiritual  children.  He 
proved  the  goodness  of  his  doctrine  by  his  tears  in 
public  and  by  his  life  in  private.  He  spared  no  pains 
in  order  to  do  good — standing  on  a  stump,  block, 
or  log,  he  sung,  prayed,  and  preached  to  hundreds  " 
as  they  passed  along  from  their  public  resorts  or 
churches.  "  It  was  common  with  him  after  preach 
ing  to  ask  most  of  the  people,  whom  he  spoke  to,  some 
question  about  the  welfare  of  their  souls,  and  to 
encourage  them  to  serve  God."  He  printed  and  cir 
culated  "Wesley's  Sermons,  "  spreading  them  through 
the  country,  to  the  great  advantage  of  religion  :  they 
opened  the  way  in  many  places  for  our  preachers, 
where  these  had  never  been  before.  Though  dead., 
he  yet  speaketh  by  his  faithful  preaching  and  holy 
walk."  Such  was  the  evangelist  who  was  the  first 
practically  to  respond  to  the  appeals  from  America 
to  England.  His  grave  is  unknown,  but  he  will 


EARLY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONARIES.         87 

live  in  the  history  of  the  Church  forever,  associated 
with  Embury,  Webb,  and  Strawbridge.  He  did 
for  it,  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  what  Em 
bury  did  for  it  in  New  York,  "Webb  in  New  Jer 
sey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware,  and  Strawbridge 
in  Maryland. 

Not  long  after  Williams's  arrival,  John  King  also 
came  from  England.  He  opened  his  mission  in  the 
Potter's  Field  of  Philadelphia.  He  extended  his 
labors  into  Delaware,  and  soon  was  co-operating 
with  Strawbridge  and  Williams,  in  Maryland.  He 
was  the  first  Methodist  who  preached  in  the  city  of 
Baltimore.  His  first  pulpit  there  was  a  blacksmith's 
block  at  the  intersection  of  Front  and  French  streets. 
His  next  sermon  was  from  a  table  at  the  junction  of 
Baltimore  and  Calvert  streets.  His  courage  was  tested 
on  this  occasion,  for  it  was  the  militia  training-day, 
and  the  drunken  crowd  charged  upon  him  so  effect 
ually  as  to  upset  the  table  and  lay  him  prostrate 
on  the  earth.  He  knew,  however,  that  the  noblest 
preachers  of  Methodism  had  suffered  like  trials  in 
England,  and  he  maintained  his  ground  courageous 
ly.  The  commander  of  the  troops,  an  Englishman, 
recognized  him  as  a  fellow-countryman,  and,  defend 
ing  him,  restored  order,  and  allowed  him  to  proceed. 
Victorious  over  the  mob,  he  made  so  favorable  an 
impression  as  to  be  invited  to  preach  in  the  English 
Church  of  St.  Paul's,  but  improved  that  opportunity 


88  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

with  sncli  fervor  as  to  receive  no  repetition  of  the 
courtesy.  Methodism  had  now,  however,  effectively 
entered  Baltimore,  down  to  our  day  its  chief  citadel  in 
the  new  world.  In  five  years  after  King  stood  there 
on  the  blacksmith's  block,  it  was  strong  enough  to 
entertain  the  Annual  Conference  of  the  denomination. 
King  was  afterward  received  into  the  regular  itiner 
ancy.  He  was  a  member  of  the  first  Conference 
of  1773,  and  was  appointed  to  New  Jersey.  He 
goon  after  entered  Yirginia,  and  with  two  other 
preachers  traveled  Robert  Williams's  new  six  weeks' 
circuit,  extending  from  Petersburgh  into  North  Caro 
lina.  "  They  were  blessed  among  the  people,  and  a 
most  remarkable  revival  of  religion  prevailed  in 
most  of  the  circuit,"  says  the  cotemporary  historian 
of  the  Church ;  "  Christians  were  united  and  devoted 
to  God ;  sinners  were  greatly  alarmed  :  the  preachers 
had  large  congregations  ;  indeed,  the  Lord  wrought 
wonders  among  us  that  year."  Still  later  we  trace 
him  again  to  JSTew  Jersey ;  he  located  during  the 
Revolution,  but  in  1801  reappeared  in  the  itinerant 
ranks  in  Yirginia.  He  located  finally  in  1803.  One 
of  our  historical  authorities  assures  us  that  "  he  was 
a  truly  pious,  zealous,  and  useful  man,  and  so  con 
tinued  till  his  death,  which  occurred  a  few  years 
since,  at  a  very  advanced  age,  in  the  vicinity  of 
Raleigh,  IS".  C.  He  was  probably  the  only  survivor, 
at  the  time  of  his  decease,  of  all  the  preachers  of 


EARLY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONARIES.         89 

ante-revolutionary  date."  John  King  did  valiant 
service  in  our  early  struggles.  He  seems,  however, 
to  have  been  often  led  away  by  his  excessive  ardor ; 
he  used  his  stentorian  voice  to  its  utmost  capacity ; 
and  it  is  said  that  when  he  preached  in  St.  Paul's, 
Baltimore,  he  "  made  the  dust  fly  from  the  old  vel 
vet  cushion."  "Wesley,  who  probably  knew  him  in 
England,  and  corresponded  with  him  in  America, 
calls  him  "  stubborn  and  headstrong." 

"Webb's  correspondence  with  "Wesley  at  last  pro 
cured  the  appointment  of  regular  itinerant  preach 
ers  to  America.  On  the  3d  of  August,  1Y69,  Wesley 
announced  in  the  Conference  at  Leeds,  "  "We  have  a 
pressing  call  from  our  brethren  of  New  York  (who 
have  built  a  preaching  house)  to  come  over  and  help 
them.  Who  is  willing  to  go  ?  "  Richard  Boardman 
and  Joseph  Pilmoor  responded,  and  were  sent.  They 
arrived  at  Philadelphia  in  October,  1769. 

Boardman  had  been  in  Wesley's  itinerancy  about 
six  years,  and  was  now  about  thirty-one  years  old. 
"Wesley  describes  him  as  "pious,  sensible,  greatly 
beloved."  Asbury  says,  he  was  u  kind,  loving, 
worthy,  truly  amiable,  and  entertaining,  of  child 
like  temper."  An  old  writer  on  Methodism  says, 
he  was  "  a  man  of  great  piety,  of  amiable  disposi 
tion,  and  great  understanding."  His  companion, 
Pilmoor,  was  converted  in  his  early  youth,  was 
educated  at  "Wesley's  Kingswood  school,  and  had 


90  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

now  itinerated  about  four  years.  He  was  a  man  of 
deep  piety,  of  good  insight,  and  much  courage,  of  a 
dignified  presence  and  ready  discourse. 

Whitefield  saluted  them  gladly  in  America  and 
bade  them  Godspeed.  He  had  prepared  the  way 
for  them  by  awakening  a  religious  interest  through 
out  the  colonies.  He  had  made  his  thirteenth 
passage  of  the  Atlantic,  and  the  next  year  after 
their  arrival  he  died  at  Newburyport,  Mass.  He 
had  finished  his  extraordinary  career,  and  left  the 
field  white  for  the  harvest.  The  Methodist  itiner 
ants  were  now  to  reap  it.  Boardman  and  Pilmoor 
continued  to  labor  in  the  country  about  four  years, 
from  Boston  to  Savannah. 

In  17YO  "America"  is  recorded  for  the  first  time 
in  "Wesley's  printed  "  Minutes  of  Conference,"  with 
four  preachers,  Boardman,  Pilmoor,  Williams,  and 
King.  In  the  following  year  it  is  recorded  with 
three  hundred  and  sixteen  Church  members.  In  the 
conference  of  1Y71  Wesley  again  called  for  volun 
teers  for  the  new  field.  "  Our  brethren  in  America," 
he  said,  "  call  aloud  for  help ;  who  will  go  ? "  Five 
responded,  and  two  were  sent:  Francis  Asbury 
(afterward  bishop)  and  Richard  Wright.  Of  the 
latter  we  know  but  little.  He  had  traveled  but  one 
year  in  the  ministry  before  he  came  to  America ;  he 
labored,  with  more  or  less  success,  from  New  York 
to  Norfolk  for  three  or  four  years,  and  then  returned 


EAELY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONAEIES.         91 

to  England.  But  Francis  Asbury  was  destined  to 
be  the  most  historical,  the  representative  character 
of  American  Methodism.  He  was  now  a  young  man 
about  twenty-six  years  of  age.  He  had  been  in  the 
traveling  ministry  only  about  five  years,  and  but 
four  years  on  the  catalogue  of  regular  appointments, 
but  had  seen  hard  service  on  Bedfordshire,  Colches 
ter,  and  Wiltshire  circuits.  He  was  studious,  some 
what  introspective,  with  a  thoughtfulness  which  was 
tinged  at  times  with  melancholy.  His  was  one  of 
those  minds  which  can  find  rest  only  in  labor; 
designed  for  great  work,  and  therefore  endowed 
with  a  restless  instinct  for  it.  He  was  an  incessant 
preacher,  of  singular  practical  directness;  was  ever 
in  motion,  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  over  his  long 
circuits;  a  rigorous  disciplinarian,  disposed  to  do 
everything  by  method;  a  man  of  /ew  words,  and 
those  always  to  the  point ;  of  quick  and  accurate 
insight  into  character;  of  a  sobriety,  not  to  say 
severity,  of  temperament,  which  might  have  been 
repulsive  had  it  not  been  softened  by  a  profound 
religious  humility,  for  his  soul,  ever  aspiring  to  the 
highest  virtue,  was  ever  complaining  within  itself 
over  its  shortcomings.  His  mind  had  eminently  a 
military  cast.  He  never  lost  his  self-possession,  and 
could  therefore  seldom  be  surprised.  He  seemed 
not  to  know  fear,  and  never  yielded  to  discourage 
ment  in  a  course  sanctioned  by  his  faith  or  con- 


92  CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

science.  He  could  plan  sagaciously,  seldom  pausing 
to  consider  theories  of  wisdom  or  policy,  but  as  sel 
dom  failing  in  practical  prudence.  The  rigor  which 
his  disciplinary  predilections  imposed  upon  others 
was  so  exemplified  by  himself,  that  his  associates  or 
subordinates,  instead  of  revolting  from  it,  accepted 
it  as  a  challenge  of  heroic  emulation.  Discerning 
men  could  not  come  into  his  presence  without  per 
ceiving  that  his  soul  was  essentially  heroic,  and  that 
nothing  committed  to  his  agency  could  fail,  if  it 
depended  upon  conscientiousness,  prudence,  courage, 
labor,  and  persistence.  "  "Who,"  says  one  who  knew 
him  intimately,  "  who  of  us  could  be  in  his  company 
without  feeling  impressed  with  a  reverential  awe 
and  profound  respect  ?  It  was  almost  impossible 
to  approach  him  without  feeling  the  strong  influence 
of  his  spirit  and  presence.  There  was  something  in 
this  remarkable  fact  almost  inexplicable  and  inde 
scribable.  Was  it  owing  to  the  strength  and  eleva 
tion  of  his  spirit,  the  sublime  conceptions  of  his 
mind,  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  his  soul,  or  the 
sacred  profession  with  which  he  was  clothed,  as  an 
embassador  of  God,  invested  with  divine  authority  ? 
But  so  it  was;  it  appeared  as  though  the  very 
atmosphere  in  which  he  moved  gave  unusual  sensa 
tions  of  diffidence  and  humble  restraint  to  the  bold 
est  confidence  of  man."  "Withal,  his  appearance  was 
in  his  favor.  In  his  most  familiar  portrait  he  has 


EAELY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONARIES.         93 

the  war-worn  aspect  of  a  military  veteran ;  but  in 
earlier  life  his  frame  was  robust,  his  countenance 
full,  fresh,  and  expressive  of  generous,  if  not  re 
fined,  feelings.  He  was  attentive  to  his  apparel, 
and  always  maintained  an  easy  dignity  of  manners, 
which  commanded  the  respect,  if  not  the  affection, 
of  his  associates.  The  appeals  from  the  American 
Methodists  had  reached  him  in  his  rural  circuits,  for 
he  had  never  left  his  ministerial  work  to  attend  the 
Annual  Conference.  Two  months  before  the  session 
of  1771  his  mind  had  been  impressed  with  the 
thought  that  America  was  his  destined  field  of 
labor.  He  saw  in  the  new  world  a  befitting  sphere 
for  his  apostolic  aspirations.  The  great  qualities, 
manifested  in  his  subsequent  career  were  inher 
ent  in  the  man,  and  Wesley  could  not  fail  to  per 
ceive  them.  He  not  only  accepted  him  for  America, 
but,  notwithstanding  his  youth,  appointed  him,  at 
the  ensuing  conference,  at  the  head  of  the  American 
ministerial  itinerancy. 

His  labors  in  the  New  "World  were,  if  possible, 
greater  than  those  of  Wesley  in  the  old ;  he  traveled 
more  miles  a  year  and  preached  as  often.  On 
becoming  bishop  of  the  Church,  he  seemed  to 
become  ubiquitous  throughout  the  republic.  The 
history  of  Christianity,  since  the  apostolic  age, 
affords  not  a  more  perfect  example  of  ministerial 
and  episcopal  devotion  than  was  presented  in  this 


9-1  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

great  man's  life.  He  preached  almost  daily  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  During  most  of  this 
time  he  traveled  over  the  continent,  with  hardly 
an  intermission,  from  north  to  south  and  east  to 
west,  directing  the  growing  hosts  of  his  denomina 
tion  with  the  skill  and  authority  of  a  great  captain. 
He  was  ordained  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  when  thirty-nine  years  old,  at  its  organi 
zation  in  1784,  when  it  comprised  less  than  fifteen 
thousand  members  and  but  about  eighty  preachers ; 
and  he  fell  in  1816,  in  his  seventy-first  year,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  more  than  two  hundred  and 
eleven  thousand  members,  and  more  than  seven 
hundred  itinerant  preachers.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  in  the  forty-five  years  of  his  American  ministry 
he  preached  about  sixteen  thousand  five  hundred 
sermons,  or  at  least  one  a  day,  and  traveled  about 
two  hundred  and  seventy  thousand  miles,  or  six 
thousand  a  year;  that  he  presided  in  no  less  than 
two  hundred  and  twenty-four  annual  conferences, 
and  ordained  more  than  four  thousand  preachers. 
He  was,  in  fine,  one  of  those  men  of  anomalous 
greatness,  in  estimating  whom  the  historian  is 
compelled  to  use  terms  which  would  be  irrele 
vant,  as  hyperbole,  to  most  men  with  which  he 
has  to  deal.  His  discrimination  of  character  was 
marvelous;  his  administrative  talents  would  have 
placed  him,  in  civil  government  or  in  war,  by  the 


EAELY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSION AEIES.         95 

side  of  Richelieu  or  Cesar,  and  his  success  placed 
him  unquestionably  at  the  head  of  the  leading  char 
acters  of  American  ecclesiastical  history.  No  one 
man  has  done  more  for  Christianity  in  the  western 
hemisphere.  His  attitude  in  the  pulpit  was  solemn 
and  dignified,  if  not  graceful ;  his  voice  was  sono 
rous  and  commanding,  and  his  discourses  were  often 
attended  with  bursts  of  eloquence  "which  spoke  a 
soul  full  of  God,  and,  like  a  mountain  torrent,  swept 
all  before  it."  Notwithstanding  his  advanced  age 
and  shattered  health  he  continued  his  travels  to  the 
last,  till  he  had  to  be  aided  up  the  pulpit  steps,  and 
to  sit  while  preaching.  On  the  24th  of  March,  1816, 
when  unable  to  either  walk  or  stand,  he  preached 
his  last  sermon  at  Richmond,  Ya.,  and  on  the  31st 
died  at  Spottsylvania,  Ya.  With  Wesley,  White- 
field,  and  Coke,  he  ranks  as  one  of  the  four  greatest 
representative  men  of  the  Methodistic  movement. 
In  American  Methodism  he  ranks  immeasurably 
above  all  his  cotemporaries  and  successors,  in  his 
torical  importance,  and  his  eventful  life  affords  the 
chief  materials  for  the  history  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  during  half  a  century. 

At  Wesley's  conference  for  1772  Captain  Webb 
made  an  eloquent  appeal  for  recruits  for  the  minis 
try  in  America,  and  obtained  Thomas  Rankin  and 
George  Shadford.  The  former  was  a  thorough 
"  disciplinarian,"  a  man  of  "  iron  will,"  and  did 


96          CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

good  service  in  the  colonial  societies,  by  his  general 
enforcement  of  discipline.  Shadford  was  a  preacher 
of  extraordinary  unction,  the  "revivalist"  of  the 
times.  Each  of  them  traveled  and  labored  inde- 
fatigably  from  New  York  to  North  Carolina,  till 
the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  when 
they  returned  to  England. 

Meanwhile  other  English  missionaries  arrived: 
James  Dempster,  Martin  Eodda,  and  "William 
Glendenning;  but  the  alarm  of  the  approaching 
revolution  dispersed  the  foreign  laborers.  Most  of 
them  returned  to  their  native  country,  and  there 
resumed  their  evangelical  travels.  A  native  min 
istry,  however,  had  now  providentially  been  raised 
up,  consisting  of  gigantic  men,  true  apostles,  pecul 
iarly  fitted  for  the  further  work  of  the  evangelization 
of  the  continent.  Watters,  Hatch,  Abbott,  Mann, 
Lee,  Garrettson,  Dickins,  Dromgoole,  and  others  had 
either  entered  the  itinerant  ranks  or  were  about  to 
do  so,  and  during  the  storm  of  the  war,  while  Asbury 
alone  of  their  foreign  coadjutors  remained,  and  he 
much  of  the  time  in  concealment,  they  bore  the 
standard  of  the  cross  forward,  sometimes  into  the 
very  camps  of  the  army.  The  cradle  of  Methodism 
was  in  fact  incessantly  rocked  by  the  revolutionary 
storm,  and  it  was  the  only  form  of  religion  that 
advanced  in  America  during  that  dark  period.  In 
the  year  (1760)  in  which  Embury  and  his  fellow- 


EARLY   EVANGELISTS  AXD   MISSIONARIES.         97 

Palatines  arrived,  the   Lords  of  Trade  advised  the 
taxing   of  the   colonies,   and   the   agitations   of  the 
latter  commenced.     The  next  year  James  Otis,  the 
"morning  star"  of  the  Revolution,  began  his  appeals 
in  Boston  for  the  rights  of  the  people.     The  follow 
ing  year  the   whole  continent  was  shaken  by  the 
royal  interference  with  the  colonial  judiciary,  espe 
cially   at   'New  York;    and   Otis    attacked,   in   the 
Massachusetts  legislature,  the  English  design  of  tax 
ation  as  planned   by  Charles   Townshend.     Offense 
followed  offense  from  the  British  ministry,  and  surge 
followed  surge  in  the  agitations  of  the  colonies.     The 
year  preceding  that  in  which  the  John-street  Church 
was  formed  is  memorable  as  the  date  of  the  Stamp 
Act;  the  Church  was  founded  amid  the  storm  of 
excitement  which  compelled  the  repeal  of  the  act  in 
1766 — the  recognized  epoch  of  American  Methodism. 
The  next  year  a  new  act   of  taxation  was  passed 
which  stirred  the  colonies  from  Maine  to  Georgia, 
and  "  The  Farmer's  Letters,"  by  John  Dickinson  of 
Pennsylvania,   appeared — "  the  foundation   rock   of 
American  politics  and  American  statesmanship."     In 
two  years  more  the  Massachusetts  legislature  "plan 
ned  resistance."     Samuel  Adams  approved  of  mak 
ing  the  "appeal   to   heaven,"   of  war,  and   British 
ships  and  troops  were  ordered  to  Boston.     The  first 
Annual   Conference    of  American    Methodism   was 

held  in  the  stormy  year  (1773)  in  which  the  British 

7 


98  CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ministry  procured  the  act  respecting  tea,  which  was 
followed  by  such  resistance  that  the  ships  bringing 
that  luxury  were  not  allowed  to  land  their  cargoes 
in  Philadelphia  and  New  York ;  were  only  allowed 
to  store  them,  not  to  sell  them,  in  South  Carolina, 
and  were  boarded  in  Boston  harbor  and  the  freight 
thrown  into  the  sea.  In  the  next  year  the  Boston 
Port  Bill  inflamed  all  the  colonies ;  "  a  General  Con 
gress  "  was  held ;  Boston  was  blockaded ;  Massachu 
setts  was  in  a  "  general  rising ;"  then  came  the  year 
of  Lexington,  and  Concord,  and  Bunker  Hill,  intro 
ducing  the  "  War  of  Revolution,"  with  its  years  of 
conflict  and  suffering.  Thus  Methodism  began  its 
history  in  America  in  the  storm  of  the  Revolution ; 
its  English  missionaries  were  arriving  or  departing 
amid  the  ever  increasing  political  agitation;  it  was 
cradled  in  the  hurricane,  and  hardened  into  vigorous 
youth,  by  the  severities  of  the  times,  till  it  stood 
forth,  the  next  year  after  the  definitive  treaty  of 
peace,  the  organized  "  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America."  Its  almost  con 
tinual  growth  in  such  apparently  adverse  circum 
stances  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  religious  history. 
In  1776  it  was  equal,  in  both  the  number  of  its 
preachers  and  congregations,  to  the  Lutherans,  the 
German  Reformed,  the  Reformed  Dutch,  the  Asso 
ciate  Church,  the  Moravians,  or  the  Roman  Catho 
lics.  At  the  close  of  the  war  it  ranked  fourth  or 


EAKLY  EVANGELISTS  AND  MISSIONAKIES.         99 

fifth  among  the  dozen  recognized  Christian  denomi 
nations  of  the  country.  During  the  war  it  had 
more  than  quadrupled  both  its  ministry  and  its 
members.  It  was  a  special  providential  provision 
for  the  religious  wants  of  America,  and  was  there 
fore  initiated  and  trained  in  the  trying  circumstances 
which  gave  birth  and  training  to  the  new  nation. 


RAPID  PROGRESS  IN'  AMERICA.  101 


CHAPTER  ,iy;, , ;  •-  -:,;• \.( }\\  I/;, 

RAPID  PROGRESS  OF  METHODISM  IN  AMERICA. 

METHODISM  broke  out  almost  simultaneously,  aa 
we  have  seen,  in  both  the  north  and  middle  of  the 
the  opening  continent.  By  the  end  of  the  Revolu 
tionary  war  it  had  laid  securely  its  foundations  ill 
both  regions.  From  these  its  first  humble  positions 
it  was  now  rapidly  to  advance  till  it  should  dot  the 
whole  country  with  its  temples,  and  growing  with 
the  growth  of  the  population,  become  the  predomi 
nant  religious  faith  of  the  nation.  Its  history  hence 
forth  develops  too  rapidly  and  largely  to  admit  of 
more  than  a  few  further  allusions  in  this  part  of  our 
volume;  nor  are  its  details  indeed  required  by  the 
plan  of  this  brief  work ;  for  its  Churches  are  about  to 
commemorate  its  origin  in  America,  and  thus  far  its 
origin  has  been  sketched.*  In  other  sections  of  the 
volume  we  shall  have  occasion  to  present  much  of  its 
remaining  history  in  outlines  of  its  Disciplinary  and 

*  For  its  fuller  history  I  must  take  the  liberty  of  referring  the  reader 
to  "The  History  of  the  Religious  Movement,  etc.,  called  Methodism," 
3  vols.,  and  "  The  History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,"  etc., 
2  vols.,  works  in  which  I  have  endeavored  to  gather  most  of  the  re 
mains  of  its  annals,  and  from  which  I  have  condensed  much  of  the 
present  volume. 


102        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Doctrinal  systems.     A  few  additional   chronological 
and  statistical  statements  must  here  suffice. 

In  1773  ^cae.  held  its  first  Annual  Conference,  in 
ths  cit?  of  Philadelphia,  consisting  of  10  preachers, 
and  reporting  1,160  members  of  society.  In  1781 
it  crossed  the  Alleghanies  and  began  that  grand 
work  of  western  evangelization,  which  has  become 
the  most  important  portion  of  its  subsequent  his 
tory,  giving  birth  to  the  "  old  Western  Confer 
ence,"  which  extended  from  the  Northern  Lakes 
to  Natchez,  and  every  one  of  whose  original  "dis 
tricts  "  comprehends  in  our  day  several  conferences. 
There  are  now,  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  33  confer 
ences,  2,816  traveling  preachers,  (besides  superannu 
ates,)  and  nearly  438,000  members,  not  including 
the  Southern  and  other  branches  of  Methodism.* 

In  1784  its  first  General  Conference  was  held  in 
Baltimore  for  the  organization  of  "  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  America," 
Dr.  Thomas  Coke  having  been  ordained  by  Wesley 
a  bishop,  and  Richard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Yasey 
elders,  for  the  purpose  of  consecrating  Francis 
Asbury  a  bishop  over  the  new  Church,  and  of 
ordaining  other  preachers  to  the  orders  of  elder 
and  deacon,  that  the  sacraments  might  be  adminis 
tered  among  the  scattered  Societies.  A  system 
of  government,  with  its  Liturgy,  Articles  of  Re- 

*  Compare  Appendix,  Table  No.  Ill,  with  the  Minutes. 


RAPID  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  103 

ligion,  Discipline,  Hymn  Book,  etc.,  was  formally 
adopted,  and  the  denomination  thus  took  prece 
dence,  in  its  episcopal  organization,  of  the  Protest 
ant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States.  Its 
bishops  were  the  first  Protestant  bishops  of  the 
western  hemisphere. 

In  1785  Freeborn  Garrettson  extended  its  labors 
to  the  northeastern  British  Provinces ;  in  1Y89  Jesse 
Lee  extended  them  into  the  E"ew  England  States; 
and  in  1790  "William  Losee  extended  them  into 
Upper  Canada.  In  Kew  England  it  was  destined 
to  become  the  second  religious  denomination  in 
numerical  strength  and  the  first  in  progress,  report 
ing  in  our  day  about  a  hundred  thousand  members, 
nearly  a  thousand  preachers,  at  least  one  academy 
for  each  of  its  conferences,  a  university,  and  a  theo 
logical  school.  In  Canada  it  was  destined  to  raise 
up  many  mighty  evangelists,  to  keep  pace  with 
emigration,  and  reach  westward*  to  the  Pacific,  and 
eastward  till  it  should  blend  with  the  Methodism 
planted  by  Coughlan,  M' Geary,  Black,  and  Garrett 
son  on  the  Atlantic  coast ;  Indian  missions  were 
to  arise;  Methodist  chapels,  many  of  them  elegant 
structures,  to  adorn  the  country;  a  Book  Concern, 
periodical  organs,  a  university,  and  academies  be 
provided ;  and  Methodism,  as  in  the  United  States, 
to  become  numerically  the  predominant  faith  of  the 
people  apart  from  the  Church  of  England^  its  dif- 


104        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ferent  branches*  reporting  in  our  day  more  than 
a  hundred  thousand  members  and  nearly  one  thou 
sand  traveling  preachers. 

Before  the  end  of  the  century  Methodism  had 
planted  its  standards  from  E"ova  Scotia  to  Georgia, 
from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  furthest  western 
line  of  emigration.  It  ended  the  century  with 
eight  Annual  Conferences,  or  Synods,  with  three 
bishops,  Coke,  Asbury,  and  Whatcoat,  with  two 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  traveling  preachers,  be 
sides  hundreds  of  local  preachers,  and  with  nearly 
sixty-five  thousand  church  members,  of  whom  more 
than  thirteen  thousand  were  Africans.  In  the  first 
Annual  Conference,  17Y3,  all  the  preachers  save  one, 
William  "Watters,  were  foreigners ;  but  after  the 
first  General  Conference  (1784)  "Wesley  dispatched 
no  "missionaries"  to  America.  All  his  former  mis 
sionaries,  except  Asbury  and  Whatcoat,  had  returned 
to  Europe,  or  located;  but  American  Methodism 
had  now  its  native  ministry,  numerous  and  vigorous. 
Besides  Asbury,  Coke,  and  Whatcoat,  it  still  retained 
many  of  the  great  evangelists  it  had  thus  far  raised  up, 
Garrettson,  Lee,  Abbott,  O'Kelly,  Crawford,  Burke, 
Poythress,  Bruce,  Breeze,  Keed,  Cooper,  Everett, 
Willis,  Dickins,  Ware,  Brush,  Moriarty,  Roberts, 
Hull,  Losee,  and  others.  A  host  of  mighty  men, 

*  The  Canada  and  other  Wesleyan  Conferences,  and  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  and  New  Connection  Churches. 


RAPID  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  105 

who  were  yet  young  and  obscure,  had  already  joined 
these  standard-bearers  :  M'Kendree,  George,  (both 
afterward  bishops,)  Roszel,  Nolley,  M'Gee,  Smith,  Gib 
son,  M'Henry,  Kobler,  Fleming,  Cook,  Scott,  "Wells, 
Pickering,  Sharp,  Bostwick,  M'Claskey,  M'Combs, 
Bartine,  IVlorrell,  Sargent,  Taylor,  Hunt,  and  scores 
more.  These  were  soon  to  be  followed,  or  rather 
joined,  by  another  host  of  as  strong  if  not  stronger 
representative  men  :  Roberts,  Hedding,  Soule,  Bangs, 
Merwin,  Capers,  Pierce,  "Winans,  Kennon,  Kenneday, 
Douglass,  Redman,  Thornton,  Einley,  Cartwright. 
and  many  others  equal  to  them ;  and  amid  an  army 
of  such  were  to  arise  in  due  time,  to  give  a  new 
intellectual  development  to  the  ministry,  such  char 
acters  as  Elliott,  Ruter,  Emory,  Eisk,  Summerfield, 
Bascom,  Olin,  and  others,  some  surviving  to  our 
day,  men  of  not  only  denominational  but  of  national 
recognition. 

The  Church  retained  vividly  the  consciousness  and 
spirit  of  its  original  mission  as  a  revival  of  apost 
olic  religion.  Its  ministry  was  remarkable  for  its 
unction  and  preached  with  demonstration  and  with 
power ;  its  social  and  public  worship  was  character 
ized  by  animation  and  energy;  it  was  continually 
promoting  "revivals"  and  "reformations,"  extending 
them,  not  only  over  conferences  or  single  states,  but 
sometimes  simultaneously  over  much  of  the  nation. 
Therefore  was  its  growth  rapid  beyond  parallel ;  the 


106        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

65,000  members  with  which  it  began  our  century, 
had  swelled  by  the  year  1825  to  nearly  350,000,  its 
287  preachers  to  more  than  1,300. 

By  the  year  1844,  when  it  was  divided  by  the 
secession  of  the  South,  it  comprised  more  than 
1,170,000  members,  and  more  than  4,600  traveling 
preachers ;  it  had  gained,  in  the  preceding  four  years, 
430,897  members  and  1,325  preachers,  an  average  of 
107,724  members  and  331  preachers  per  year.  Thus, 
in  the  hour  of  its  most  gigantic  strength  and  capacity 
for  usefulness,  when  its  arms  could  be  outstretched  to 
the  ends  of  the  world  with  the  blessings  of  the  Gos 
pel  of  peace,  was  the  mighty  Colossus  broken  in  twain. 

But  the  loyal  Church  fast  recovered  its  strength 
and  moved  onward,  so  that  by  1850  it  reported  nearly 
690,000  members,  4,129  traveling  and  5,420  local 
preachers.  In  1860  it  reported  994,447  members, 
6,987  traveling  and  8,188  local  preachers;  and  the 
two  bodies,  North  and  South,  enrolled  1,743,515 
members,  9,771  traveling  and  13,541  local  preachers. 

This  hundredth  year  of  the  denomination  wit 
nesses  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  alone  60 
conferences,  928,320  members,  6,821  itinerant  preach 
ers,  8,205  local  preachers,  10,015  churches,  valued, 
with  their  2,948  parsonages,  at  $26,883,076.*  In 
cluding  both  branches  of  Methodism,  North  and 

*  Minutes  of  1864,  the  latest  published  before  the  present  volume 
goes  to  press. 


KAPID  PROGRESS  IN  AMERICA.  107 

South,  the  aggregate  is  1,628,388  members,  9,421 
traveling,  and  13,205  local  preachers.*  Its  congre 
gations  are  among  the  largest  in  the  country,  and  its 
terms  of  Church  membership  are  among  the  most 
stringent  known  in  Protestant  Christendom.  It  is 
a  moderate  calculation  that  there  are  three  members 
of-  its  congregations  to  one  of  its  communicants,  in 
cluding  its  numerous  children  and  youth;  at  this 
rate  the  aggregate  population,  more  or  less  habit 
ually  under  the  influence  of  its  two  leading  Churches, 
North  and  South,  can  hardly  be  less  than  6,710,000 ; 
it  is  more  likely  about  7,000,000,  more  than  one 
fifth  of  the  population  of  the  nation. 

Adding  the  other  branches  of  Methodism,  there 
must  now  be  in  the  United  States  1,950,000  members 
and  12,000  traveling  preacjiers  religiously  training, 
more  or  less,  a  population  of  7,800,000  souls.  In 
the  whole  western  hemisphere,  including  the  "West 
Indies  and  British  North  America,  there  are  at  least 
2,100,000  Methodists. 

In  the  four  Middle  states,  New  York,  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  Jersey,  and  Delaware,  "Methodism  had 
in  1850,  according  to  the  United  States  census,  2,556 
churches,  while  the  four  remaining  evangelical  and 
leading  denominations — the  Baptist,  Congregation- 
alists,  Episcopalian,  and  Presbyterian — had  an  aggre- 

*  Tho  latest  Southern  reports  are  for  1860.  The  war  has  doubtless 
affected  them,  as  the  above  figures  show  it  has  Northern  Methodism. 


108        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

gate  of  only  3,600,  showing  that  Methodism  holds 
about  three  quarters  of  the  popular  power  of  evangel 
ical  Christianity  in  that  central  division  of  the  coun 
try,  where  the  leading  state  and  the  metropolitan  city 
of  the  continent  are  found.  In  the  ten  Southern  states 
and  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  above-named  de 
nominations  have  4,458  churches,  the  Methodists 
5,015,  which  gives  Methodism  an  excess  of  several 
hundred  churches  over  this  combined  evangelical 
competition;  and  in  the  eleven  Western  states,  the 
comparison  stands:  the  four  denominations,  4,899 
churches ;  Methodism,  4,863,  which,  with  the  statis 
tics  of  the  territories  compiled  since  the  census  of 
1850,  will  give  to  the  youngest  leading  religious  body 
in  the  land  a  relative  ascendancy  still  greater  than  in 
the  states  of  the  South.  The  sum  of  it  all  is,  that 
in  New  England,  Methodism  is  rapidly  gaining  on 
the  ancestral  religion ;  that  in  the  Middle  states,  it 
nearly  balances  the  four  great  evangelical  denomina 
tions  ;  that  in  the  states  of  the  South,  it  more  than 
balances  them  ;  that  in  the  great  West,  which  is  soon 
to  wield  a  weightier  influence  than  all  the  other  states 
combined,  it  has  taken  a  still  stronger  position."  * 

*  Tefft's  Methodism,  p.  199. 


ITS  PEACTICAL  SYSTEM.  109 


CHAPTEE  Y. 

ITS  PEACTICAL   SYSTEM. 

THE  historical  answer  to  the  question,  "What 
is  Methodism?  is  not  complete  without  a  more 
precise  account  of  its  practical  or  "Disciplinary" 
system. 

The  first  organic  form  which  the  new  movement 
took  was  that  of  the  "  United  Society,"  founded  by 
Wesley  in  connection  with  the  "  Old  Foundry,"  Lon 
don.  The  model  of  this  elementary  organization  was 
before  him  in  the  Fetter  Lane  and  other  societies 
to  which  he  had  resorted  in  the  metropolis.  These 
Societies  rapidly  multiplied  throughout  the  country. 
In  their  maturer  form,  they  were  composed  of  mem 
bers,  and  probationers  (six  months  on  trial),  divided 
into  classes  of  twelve  or  more  persons,  and  meeting 
weekly,  under  the  care  of  a  Class-leader,  for  religious 
counsel  and  the  contribution  of  money  for  the  sup 
port  of  the  Church  according  to  the  General  Rules. 
The  leaders  were  met  at  first  weekly,  afterward 
monthly,  by  the  preacher. 

The  Class  Meeting  became  one  of  the  most  import- 
tant  institutions  of  Methodism :  the  basis  of  its 
financial  economy  and  the  germ  of  almost  every 


110        CENTENAKY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

new  Society  formed  in  its  rapid  progress.  The  two 
Wesleys  prepared  the  document,  known  now  through 
out  the  Methodist  world  as  "The  General  Kules," 
and  prescribing  the  "  only  one  condition  previously 
required  of  those  who  desire  admission  into  these 
Societies."  *  It  is  distinguished  by  its  practical 
thoroughness,  and,  equally,  by  the  absence  of  any 
dogmatic  requisitions.  As  presenting  the  "  only " 
terms  of  membership  in  the  Church,  it  is  a  striking 
proof  of  what  we  have  assumed  to  be  the  stand-point, 
the  providential  design  of  Methodism,  namely,  the 
revival  and  propagation  of  spiritual  religion ;  not 
of  sectarian  ecclesiasticism,  or  sectarian  theology. 

Each  Society  has  its  Trustees,  holding  the  chapel 
property;  its  Stewards,  having  charge  of  its  other 
finances ;  and,  in  many  cases,  its  licensed  Exhorters 
and  Local  Preachers,  men  who  pursue  secular  voca 
tions,  but  labor  as  public  teachers  whenever  they 
find  opportunity.  The  Exhorters  usually  graduate 
to  the  office  of  Local  Preacher,  and  thence  to  the 
traveling  ministry;  this,  in  fine,  is  the  recruiting 
process  of  the  Annual  Conference.  Each  Society  also 
has  its  "  Prayer  Meetings,"  in  which  its  lay  talents, 
without  respect  to  sex,  are  brought  into  exercise,  and 
thereby  developed  and  made  subservient  to  the  com 
mon  cause ;  its  Love-Feasts,  derived  through  the  Mora 
vians,  from  the  primitive  Agapse,  and  held  usually 

*  See  it  in  Appendix  No.  I. 


ITS  PRACTICAL  SYSTEM.  Ill 

once  a  quarter ;  its  Watch-nights,  generally  celebrated 
on  the  last  night  of  the  year. 

A  group  of  these  Societies  form  a  Circuit,  extend 
ing  in  some  cases  five  hundred  miles,  requiring  from 
two  to  six  or  more  weeks  to  travel  around  it,  and 
supplied  by  a  preacher  "  in  charge,"  and  two  or  three 
assistants,  who  are  aided  by  the  Local  Preachers ;  the 
Class-Leaders  maintaining  a  minute  pastoral  oversight 
of  the  Societies  during  the  absence  of  the  itinerants. 

A  group  of  circuits  constitute  a  District,  superin 
tended  by  a  Presiding  Elder,  who  incessantly  travels 
his  extensive  territory,  preaching,  counseling  the 
traveling  and  Local  Preachers  and  Exhorters,  meet 
ing  the  official  members  of  the  circuit  Societies,  and 
promoting  the  interest  of  the  Church  in  every  possi 
ble  way. 

The  Quarterly  Conference  is  held  by  the  Presiding 
Elder,  in  accordance  with  its  title,  once  in  three 
months,  on  each  circuit,  and  is  composed  of  the 
preachers  of  the  circuit,  its  local  preachers,  exhorters, 
leaders,  stewards,  and  Sunday-school  superintendents. 
It  has,  subordinately  to  the  Annual  Conference, 
jurisdiction  over  all  the  local  interests  of  the  circuit : 
its  finances,  the  authorization  of  its  local  preachers 
and  exhorters,  a  class  of  judicial  appeals,  and  the 
recommendation  of  candidates  for  the  Annual  Con 
ferences.  Formerly  its  exercises  were  largely,  mostly 
indeed,  spiritual.  It  continued  about  two  days, 


112        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

during  which  there  were  almost  continual  sessions, 
sermons,  prayer-meetings,  or  love-feasts.  The  Meth 
odist  families  of  the  circuit,  often  from  the  distance 
of  many  miles,  assembled  at  it,  making  it  a  great 
religious  festival. 

A  number  of  districts  (with  their  Quarterly  Con 
ferences)  constitute  the  Annual  Conference,  com 
posed  of  the  traveling  preachers  of  the  given  territory. 
These  annual  assemblies  became  imposing  occasions. 
A  bishop  presided ;  the  preachers,  from  many  miles 
around,  usually  including  several  states,  were  present ; 
hosts  of  laymen  were  spectators.  There  was  preach 
ing  in  the  early  morning,  in  the  afternoon,  and  at 
night.  The  daily  proceedings  were  introduced  with 
religious  services,  and  were  characterized  by  an  im 
pressive  religious  spirit.  They  continued  usually  a 
week,  and  it  was  a  festal  season,  gathering  the  war 
worn  heroes  of  many  distant  and  hard-fought  fields, 
renewing  the  intimacies  of  preachers  and  people,  and 
crowned  alike  by  social  hospitalities  and  joyous  de 
votions.  They  have  their  particular  regulations  pre 
scribed  in  the  Discipline. 

All  the  Annual  Conferences  are  represented  by 
delegates  in  the  General  Conference,  which  meets 
once  in  four  years,  and  is  the  supreme  assembly  of 
the  denomination,  making  its  "  rules  and  regula 
tions,"  under  certain  Restrictive  Rules,  and  revising 
its  whole  work  and  interests.  Its  session  usuallv 


ITS  PRACTICAL  SYSTEM.  113 

lasts  about  four  weeks;  it  is  the  great  jubilee  of  the 
denomination,  and  has  unquestionably  become  one  of 
the  most  important  ecclesiastical  occasions  of  the 
Christian  world. 

Such  is  a  mere  glance  at  the  "  economy  "  or  practical 
system  of  Methodism,  not  altogether  as  it  was  under 
Wesley  in  England,  but  as  it  developed  and  enlarged 
itself  in  America  at  and  after  the  Christmas  General 
Conference  of  1784,  when  the  Church  assumed  an 
organic  form  with  its  series  of  synodal  bodies,  extend 
ing  from  the  fourth  of  a  year  to  four  years,  from  the 
local  circuit  to  the  whole  nation ;  its  series  of  pastoral 
functionaries,  Class-leaders,  Exhorters,  Local  Preach 
ers,  Circuit  Preachers,  District  Preachers  or  Presid 
ing  Elders,  and  Bishops  whose  common  diocese  was 
the  entire  country;  its  Prayer-meetings,  Band-meet 
ings,  Love-feasts,  and  incessant  preaching ;  its  Ritual, 
Articles  of  Religion,*  Psalmody,  and  singularly 
minute  moral  discipline,  as  prescribed  in  its  "Gen 
eral  Rules"  and  ministerial  regimen.  Its  system 
was  remarkably  precise  and  consecutive,  and,  as 
seen  in  our  day  by  its  results,  as  remarkably  effective. 
Time  has  proved  it  to  be  the  most  efficient  of  all 
modern  religious  organizations,  not  only  among  the 
dispersed  population  of  a  new  country,  but  also  in 
the  dense  communities  of  an  ancient  people ;  on  the 
American  frontier,  and  in  the  English  city,  it  is  found 
efficacious  beyond  all  other  ecclesiastical  plans,  stimu- 

8 


114        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

lating  most  others,  and  yet  outstripping  them.  This 
singular  system  of  religious  instrumentalities  was  not 
devised.  It  was  in  but  few  respects  the  result  of 
sagacious  foresight ;  it  grew  up  spontaneously,  and 
Wesley's  legislative  wisdom  shows  itself  not  so  much 
in  inventing  its  peculiarities,  as  in  appropriating 
skillfully  the  means  which  were  providentially  pro- 
.vided  for  him.  Its  elementary  parts  were  evolved 
unexpectedly  in  the  progress  of  the  denomination. 
"Wesley  saw  that  the  state  of  religion  throughout  the 
English  nation  required  a  thorough  reform ;  God,  he 
believed,  would  provide  for  whatever  was  necessary 
to  be  done  in  such  a  necessity,  if  willing  and  earnest 
men  would  attempt  to  do  it.  He  was  ready  to  at 
tempt  it,  and  to  be  sacrificed  for  it.  He  looked  not 
into  the  future,  but  consulted  only  the  openings  of 
his  present  duty.  He  expected  at  first  to  keep  within 
the  restrictions  of  the  national  Church.  The  manner 
in  which  he  was  providentially  led  to  adopt,  one  by 
one,  the  peculiar  measures  which  at  last  consolidated 
into  a  distinct  and  unparalleled  system,  is  an  inter 
esting  feature  in  the  history  of  Methodism,  and 
worthy  to  be  traced  with  more  particular  attention 
than  we  have  hitherto  been  able  to  give  it. 

The  doctrines  which  he  preached,  and  the  novel 
emphasis  with  which  he  preached  them,  led  to  his 
expulsion  from  the  pulpits  of  the  Establishment. 
This  treatment,  together  with  the  great  assemblies 


ITS  PKACTICAL  SYSTEM.  115 

he  attracted,  compelled  him  to  preach  them  in  the 
open  air:  a  measure  which  the  moral  wants  of  the 
country  demanded,  and  which  is  justified,  as  well 
by  the  example  of  Christ  as  by  its  unquestionable 
results. 

The  inconvenience  of  the  "room"  occupied  by 
his  followers  for  spiritual  meetings  at  Bristol,  led 
to  the  erection  of  a  more  commodious  edifice.  This 
was  a  place  of  occasional  preaching,  and  finally, 
without  the  slightest  anticipation  of  such  a  result, 
the  first  in  a  series  of  chapels  which  became  the 
habitual  resorts  of  his  followers,  and  thereby  con 
tributed  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other  cause  to  their 
organization  into  a  distinct  sect.  The  debt  incurred 
by  this  building  rendered  necessary  a  plan  of  pecun 
iary  contributions  among  the  worshipers  who  assem 
bled  in  it.  They  agreed  to  pay  a  penny  a  week. 
They  were  divided  into  companies  of  twelve,  one  of 
whom,  called  the  leader,  was  appointed  to  receive 
their  pittances.  At  their  weekly  meetings,  for  the 
payment  of  this  contribution,  they  found  leisure  for 
religious  conversation  and  prayer.  These  companies, 
formed  only  for  a  local  and  temporary  object,  were 
afterward  called  classes,  and  the  arrangement  was  in 
corporated  into  the  perman^t  economy  of  Method 
ism.  In  this  manner  originated  one  of  the  most  dis 
tinctive  features  of  its  system,  the  advantages  of 
which  are  beyond  estimation.  The  class-meeting  has, 


116        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

more  than  any  other  means,  preserved  the  original 
purity  and  vigor  of  the  denomination.  It  is  the  best 
school  of  experimental  divinity  that  the  world  has 
seen  in  modern  times.  It  has  given  a  sociality  of 
spirit  and  a  disciplinary  training  to  Methodism  which 
have  been  characteristic  of  it,  if  not  peculiar  to  it. 

We  cannot  but  admire  the  providential  adaptation 
of  this  institution  to  another  which  was  subsequently 
to  become  all-important  in  the  Methodist  economy — 
an  itinerant  ministry.  Such  a  ministry  could  not 
admit  of  much  local  pastoral  labor,  especially  in 
the  New  "World,  where  the  circuits  were  long.  The 
class-leader  became  a  substitute  for  the  preacher 
in  this  department  of  his  office.  The  fruits  of 
an  itinerant  ministry  must  have  disappeared  in 
many,  perhaps  most,  places  during  the  long  inter 
vals  which  elapsed  between  the  visits  of  the  earlier 
preachers,  had  they  not  been  preserved  by  the  class- 
meeting. 

Another  most  important  result  of  the  class-meeting 
was  the  pecuniary  provision  it  afforded  for  the  prose 
cution  of  the  plans  which  were  daily  enlarging  under 
the  hands  of  "Wesley.  The  whole  fiscal  system  of 
Methodism  arose  from  the  Bristol  penny  collections, 
modified  at  last  into  th0"  rule  "  of  "  a  penny  a  week 
and  a  shilling  a  quarter."  Thus,  without  foreseeing 
the  great  independent  cause  he  was  about  to  estab 
lish,  Wesley  formed,  through  a  slight  circumstance,  a 


ITS  PRACTICAL  SYSTEM.  117 

simple  and  yet  most  effective  system  of  finance  for 
the  expenses  which  its  future  prosecution  would 
involve.  And  admirably  was  this  pecuniary  system 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  that  cause.  He  was 
destined  to  raise  up  a  great  religious  organization ; 
it  was  to  be  composed  chiefly  of  the  poor,  and  yet  to 
require  large  pecuniary  resources.  How  were  these 
resources  to  be  provided  from  among  a  poor  people  ? 
The  providential  formation  of  a  plan  of  finance  which 
suited  the  poverty  of  the  poorest,  ana  which  worldly 
sagacity  would  have  contemned,  banished  all  diffi 
culty,  and  has  led  to  pecuniary  results  which  have 
rarely  if  ever  been  equaled  by  any  voluntary  religious 
organization. 

The  itinerant  lay  ministry  was  equally  providen 
tial  in  its  origin.  "Wesley  was  at  first  opposed  to  the 
employment  of  lay  preachers.  He  expected  the  co 
operation  of  the  regular  clergy.  They,  however, 
were  his  most  persistent  antagonists.  Meanwhile 
the  small  societies,  formed  by  his  followers  for 
spiritual  improvement,  multiplied.  "What,"  he 
says,  "  was  to  be  done  in  a  case  of  such  extreme 
necessity,  where  so  many  souls  lay  at  stake  ?  ~No 
clergyman  would  assist  at  all.  The  expedient  that 
remained  was  to  seek  some  one  among  themselves 
who  was  upright  of  heart  and  of  sound  judgment  in 
the  things  of  God,  and  desire  him  to  meet  the  rest  as 
often  as  he  could,  to  confirm  them,  as  he  was  able,  in 


118        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

the  ways  of  God,  either  by  reading  to  them  or  by 
prayer  and  exhortation."  From  exhortation  these 
men  proceeded  to  exposition,  from  exposition  to 
preaching.  The  result  was  natural,  but  it  was  not 
designed.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  Methodist 
lay  ministry. 

The  multiplication  of  societies  exceeded  the  increase 
of  preachers.  It  thus  became  necessary  that  the  lat 
ter  should  travel  from  town  to  town,  and  thence 
arose  the  itinerancy,  one  of  the  most  important  feat 
ures  of  the  ministerial  system  of  Methodism.  It  is 
not  a  labor-saving  provision — quite  the  contrary — but 
a  laborer-saving  one.  The  pastoral  service,  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  confined  to  a  single 
parish,  was  extended  by  this  plan  to  scores  of  towns 
and  villages,  and,  by  the  co-operation  of  the  class- 
meeting,  was  rendered  almost  as  efficient  as  it  would 
have  been  were  it  local.  It  was  this  peculiarity  that 
rendered  the  ministry  of  Methodism  so  successful  in 
new  countries.  It  also  contributed,  perhaps  more 
than  any  other  cause,  to  maintain  a  sentiment 
of  unity  among  its  people.  It  gave  a  pilgrim,  a 
militant  character  to  its  preachers ;  they  felt  that 
"  here  they  had  no  abiding  city,"  and  were  led  more 
earnestly  to  seek  one  out  of  sight.  It  would  not 
allow  them  to  entangle  themselves  with  local  tram 
mels.  The  cross  peculiarly  "  crucified  them  to  the 
world,  and  the  world  to  them."  Their  zeal,  rising 


ITS  PRACTICAL  SYSTEM.  119 

into  religious  chivalry ;  their  devotion  to  one  work  ; 
their  disregard  for  ease  and  the  conveniences  of 
stationary  life,  were  owing  largely  to  their  itiner 
ancy.  It  made  them  one  of  the  most  self-sacrificing, 
laborious,  practical,  and  successful  bodies  of  men 
which  have  appeared  in  the  great  field  of  modern 
Christian  labor.  And  it  was  the  opinion  of  "Wesley 
that  the  time  when  itinerancy  should  cease  in  the  , 
ministry,  and  classes  among  the  laity  of  Methodism, 
would  be  the  date  of  its  downfall. 

These  developments  inevitably  led  to  others.  It 
was  necessary  that  "Wesley  should  advise  his  preach 
ers  ;  they  met  him  annually  for  the  purpose,  and 
from  such  informal  consultations  arose  the  consti 
tutional  Conference,  a  body  whose  title  has  taken 
a  prominent  place  in  the  ecclesiastical  terminology 
of  Christendom,  among  the  names  of  councils,  con 
vocations,  and  synods.  Its  deliberations  at  last 
originated  the  laws,  defined  the  theology,  and 
planned  the  propagandism  of  the  denomination.  Its 
Minutes,  revised  and  reduced,  became  the  Methodist 
Discipline.  It  has  reproduced  itself  in  Ireland,  in 
France  and  Germany,  in  the  American  Republic, 
in  the  British  North  American  Provinces,  in  Aus 
tralia,  in  India  and  in  Africa ;  and  it  promises  to 
be  a  perpetually  if  not  a  universally  recognized 
institution  of  the  Protestant  world. 

"With  the  erection  of  churches  arose  the  necessity 


120        CENTENARY  OP  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

for  the  appointment  of  Trustees  to  hold  their  prop 
erty.  The  finances  of  the  societies  rendered  neces 
sary  the  appointment  of  local  Stewards ;  the  multi 
plication  of  societies,  the  appointment  of  Circuit 
Stewards,  to  whom  the  local  stewards  became 
auxiliaries.  The  increase  of  business  on  the  circuits 
led  to  the  creation  of  the  Quarterly  Meeting,  or 
Quarterly  Conference  as  it  is  called  in  America, 
comprising  the  officers,  lay  and  clerical,  of  the 
several  societies  of  the  circuit ;  and  the  District 
Meeting  or  Conference,  combining  several  circuits. 
And  thus,  wheel  within  wheel,  the  system  took 
form,  and  became  a  settled  and  powerful  economy. 

The  importance  of  this  system  becomes  still  more 
striking  when  we  consider  its  adaptation  to  the 
New  World — to  the  immense  fields  of  immigration 
and  civilization  which  were  about  to  be  opened  in 
not  only  North  America,  but  in  Oceanica,  the 
"Island  World,"  to  which  geographers  give  rank 
as  the  fifth  division  of  the  globe,  and  along  whose 
now  busy  coasts  Cook,  the  navigator,  was  furtively 
sailing  while  Wesley  was  founding  Methodism  in 
England.  Its  importance  to  our  own  country  will 
be  considered  hereafter. 

It  has  been  objected  to  the  ecclesiastical  system  of 
Methodism  that  it  excludes  its  laity  from  its  higher 
councils.  Historically  this  fact  is  not  discreditable  to 
it.  Its  early  preachers  went  forth  not  at  the  call  of 


ITS  PRACTICAL  SYSTEM.  121 

the  people,  but  to  call  the  people.  A  small  body  of 
ecclesiastics,  they  traversed  the  land  preaching  and 
forming  Societies  on  circuits  hundreds  of  miles  long. 
These  Societies  were  usually  feeble,  individually ;  they 
were  composed  mostly  of  poor,  dispersed,  and  unlet 
tered  people ;  and  the  preachers  were  compelled  to 
have  the  almost  exclusive  management  of  their  scat 
tered,  untrained  Churches.  It  was  necessary  for 
the  itinerants  to  meet  periodically  to  revise  and 
rearrange  their  labors ;  these  periodical  assemblies 
were  called,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  unpretentious 
name  of  Conferences ;  it  would  have  been  impossible, 
in  the  early  days  of  the  denomination,  to  have  gath 
ered,  in  their  sessions,  any  satisfactory  lay  representa 
tion  of  the  Societies.  The  conference  grew  into  the 
supreme  legislature  ^nd  judiciary  of  the  Church,  and 
thus  came  to  pass,  at  last,  the  startling  anomaly  of 
the  largest  religious  body  in  the  republic,  a  body,  too, 
entirely  pervaded  by  the  republican  sentiments  of 
the  country,  yet  controlled  exclusively,  in  at  least  its 
higher  assemblies,  by  its  clergy.  The  fact  was  not 
the  result  of  design,  it  was  historically  an  accident, 
and  I  repeat,  in  nowise  dishonorable  to  the  ministry. 
In  agitations  for  a  reform  of  this  fact,  there  has  been 
no  little  contention  and  confusion,  but  opposition  to 
a  change  has  not  arisen  so  much  from  theories  of 
church  government,  as  from  a  fear,  on  the  part  of 
loyal  laymen  and  preachers,  that  the  practical 


122        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

^  -    "" 

efficiency  of  the  system  would  be  endangered  by  any 
radical  change.  Theories  of  Church  polity  have 
been  of  course  more  or  less  unavoidable  in  such 
discussions,  but  practical  expediency  has  been  the 
main  question  with  both  parties.  The  liberality, 
not  to  say  liberalism,  of  Methodism  in  theology 
(hereafter  to  be  shown)  has  characterized  it  equally 
in  matters  of  Church  government.  It  does  not  admit 
that  there  is  any  scriptural  or  divinely  enjoined  form 
of  ecclesiastical  polity,  but  that  practical  expedience 
is  the  only  divine  right  of  any  system.  Its  own 
system  is  essentially  Presbyterian,  a  Presbyterian 
episcopacy.  Its  bishop  is  a  presbyter  in  "  order," 
though  a  bishop  in  office ;  a  presbyter  superintending 
the  body  of  presbyters,  primus  inter  pares.  In 
retaining  the  two  clerical  orders  of  presbyter  and 
deacon,  it  does  not  declare  that  they  are  necessary 
to  the  validity  of  the  ministry,  nor  impeach  sister 
Churches  that  have  them  not ;  in  adopting  ordina 
tion,  by  imposition  of  hands,  it  does  not  assert  any 
sacramental  virtue  or  scriptural  obligation  in  the 
rite,  but  uses  it  as  an  impressive  and  appropriate 
ceremony.  In  America  Methodism  has  always,  since 
its  organization,  had  bishops,  in  England  it  has  never 
had  them ;  in  America  it  has  the  two  orders  of  the 
ministry,  in  England  it  has  but  one ;  in  the  former 
it  has  always  practiced  "  ordination  "  by  imposition 
of  hands,  in  England  it  never  used  such  ordination 


ITS  PKACTICAL  SYSTEM.  123 

until  some  years  ago,  when  it  was  adopted  at  the 
suggestion  of  an  American  visitor,  and  solely  as  an 
expedient  form;  and  yet  British  and  American 
Methodism  have  never  questioned  each  others'  scrip 
tural  validity. 

Basing  all  Church  government  on  Christian  expedi 
ency,  American  Methodism  is  ready  for  any  modifi 
cations  of  its  system  which  time  may  show  to  be 
desirable  for  its  greater  effectiveness.  Its  General 
Conference  has  therefore  formally  declared  that  it  is 
not  only  willing  to  provide  for  lay  representation 
whenever  the  Churches  demand  it,  but  that  it 
approves  of  the  change.  Many  Annual  Conferences 
have  also  formally  seconded  this  declaration  of  the 
supreme  body,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  Church  is 
now  generally  becoming  convinced  that  in  its  present 
maturity  it  can  safely  modify  its  government  in  this 
respect,  and  thus  rid  itself  of  an  ecclesiastical  anom 
aly  which,  if  it  has  not  seriously  interfered  with  its 
prosperity,  has  at  least  been  a  disparagement  to  its 
character,  especially  in  the  writings  of  its  opponents. 
Lay  representation  is  a  prospective,  apparently  a 
certain  fact  of  American  Methodism,  and  with  it 
will  come,  it  may  be  hoped,  a  reunion  of  most  if  not 
all  its  various  sects  in  the  nation,  this  being  now  the 
only  important  question  between  most  of  them  and 
the  parent  body. 


ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM.  125 


CHAPTER  YI. 

ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM. 

IT  has  been  affirmed  that,  consistently  with  its 
Providential  mission,  as  a  revival  of  spiritual  life  in 
Christendom,  Methodism  did  not  start  on  its  career 
with  any  new  dogmas,  or  any  sectarian  or  theological 
exclusiveness.  It  has  its  theology  nevertheless,  and 
this  theology  has  doubtless  been  one  of  the  most 
potent  elements  of  its  vitality  as  an  ecclesiastical 
movement.  Not  a  single  doctrine,  however,  did  it*"" 
announce,  or  does  it  yet  proclaim,  that  was  not  sanc 
tioned  by  the  standards  of  the  Anglican  establish 
ment.  It  was  not,  as  we  have  seen,  novelty  of  opinion 
so  much  as  the  earnestness  with  which  Methodism 
uttered  the  acknowledged  doctrines  of  the  Church, 
that  gave  offerise  and  provoked  opposition  and  pro 
scription.  Wesley  provided  the  theology  of  Amer 
ican  Methodism  in  a  symbol  called  the  "Articles 
Religion,"  and  these  articles  were  taken  from  the 
"Thirty-nine  Articles"  of  the  Anglican  Church. 
They  are  abridged,  and  in  some  cases  slightly 
amended,  but  they  convey  no  tenet  which  is  not 
received  by  the  Church  of  England,  and  they  are 
the  only  officially  recognized  standard  of  Methodist 


126        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

doctrine  in  America.  Wesley's  emendations  chiefly 
guard  them  against  interpretations  favorable  to  sacra 
mental  regeneration  and  other  Romish  errors. 

Singularly  enough,  the  opinions  which  are  con 
sidered  most  distinctive  of  Wesleyan  theology  have 
no  expression  in  the  "Articles  of  Religion,"  which, 
by  Wesley's  own  prescription,  have  become  the 
dogmatic  standard  of  American  Methodism.  He 
eliminates  the  supposed  Anglican  Calvinism,  but 
he  does  not  introduce  his  own  Arminianism,  ex 
cept  in  the  thirty-first  Anglican  article  on  the 
"  Oblation  of  Christ,"  which  is  Arminian  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  atonement.  In  like  manner 
we  have  no  statement  of  his  doctrines  of  the 
"Witness  of  the  Spirit"  and  "Christian  Perfec 
tion."  And  yet  no  doctrines  more  thoroughly  per 
meate  the  preaching,  or  more  entirely  character 
ize  the  moral  life  of  Methodism  than  his  opinions 
of  the  universal  salvability  of  men,  assurance,  and 
sanctification.  He  evidently  designed  the  articles 
to  be  the  briefest  and  barest  possible  symbol  of 
expedient  doctrines ;  and,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see, 
not  even  a  requisite  condition  of  Church  member 
ship,  though  a  requisite  functional  qualification  for 
the  ministry.  He  consigned  his  other  tenets,  how 
ever  precious  to  him,  to  other  means  of  conservation 
and  diffusion,  for  it  was  not  his  opinion  that  the 
orthodoxy  of  a  Church  can  best  guarantee  its  spirit- 


ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM.  127" 

ual  life,  but  rather  that  its  spiritual  life  can  best 
guarantee  its  orthodoxy. 

The  Arminianism  of  Wesley  has  been  rightly 
so  called.  It  is  essentially  true  to  the  teachings 
of  the  great  theologian  of  Holland,  though  not  to 
the  elaborations  of  his  system  by  Episcopius  and 
Limborch,  and  much  less  to  the  perversions  of  its 
later  eminent  representatives.  "Wesley  had  the  cour 
age  to  place  the  name  of  Arminius  on  his  periodical 
organ,  one  of  the  earliest  and  now  the  oldest  of 
religious  magazines  in  the  Protestant  world.  His 
Arminianism  was  far  from  being  that  mongrel 
system  of  semi-Pelagianism  and  semi-Socinianism 
which,  for  generations,  was  denounced  by  "New 
England  theologians  as  Arminianism,  until  the 
most  erudite  Calvinistic  authority  of  the  eastern 
states  (Prof.  Stuart  of  Andover)  rebuked  the  base 
less  charge  and  bade  his  brethren  be  no  longer 
guilty  of  it.  Wesley  taught  u. original  sin"  in  the 
language  of  the  ninth  Anglican  Article;  though  he 
taught  also  that  both  the  justice  and  mercy  of  the 
Creator  require  that  the  human  race  should  not  have 
been  continued,  under  this  law  of  hereditary  depra 
vation,  unless  adequate  provision  were  made  for  it 
by  the  atonement ;  he  preached,  therefore,  universal 
redemption.  He  taught  with  the  tenth  Anglican 
article,  on  "  Free  Will,"  that  "  the  condition  of  man, 
after  the  fall  of  Adam,  is  such  that  he  cannot  turn 


128        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

and  prepare  himself,  by  his  natural  strength  and 
works,  to  faith  and  calling  upon  God ; "  that  he  has 
"  no  power  to  do  good  works,  pleasant  and  accept 
able  to  God,  without  the  grace  of  God,  by  Christ^ 
preventing"  him;  but  he  taught  also  that  such  "  pre 
venting  grace "  is  provided  for  all  responsible  souls, 
and  that  none  could  be  responsible  without  it. 
With  the  eleventh  Anglican  article  he  taught  "just 
ification  by  faith"  alone,  "and  not  for  our  own 
works  and  deservings;"  yet  he  also  taught  that 
"  good  works  follow  after  justification,"  and  "  do 
spring  out,  necessarily,  of  a  true  and  lively  faith." 
He  taught  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God:  that, 
like  the  potter  with  the  clay,  he  can  make  some 
vessels  for  more,  some  for  less  honor ;  yet  he  also 
taught  that,  as  wisdom  and  beneficence  are  essential 
attributes  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  God  neither 
would  nor  could  (any  more  than  the  wise  potter 
with  his  clay)  make  some  for  the  gratification  of  a 
wanton  caprice  in  their  destruction,  much  less  in 
their  interminable  anguish. 

Of  Wesley's  Doctrine  of  Assurance,  founded  upon 
the  text,  "  The  Spirit  itself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God,"  and  upon 
analogous  Scripture  passages,  I  have  already  said 
that  it  was  not  a  peculiar  opinion  of  Methodism, 
but  common,  in  its  essential  form,  to  the  leading 
bodies  of  Christendom,  Greek,  Eoman,  and  Protest- 


ITS  DOCTEINAL  SYSTEM.  129 

ant ;  that  as  a  high  theological  as  well  as  philosoph 
ical  authority  of  our  times,  Sir  William  Hamilton,  has 
declared,  "  Assurance  was  long  universally  held  in 
the  Protestant  communities  to  be  the  criterion  and 
condition  of  a  true  or  saving  faith ;  Luther  declares, 
'  He  who  hath  not  assurance  spews  faith  out ; '  and 
Melanchthon,  that  'assurance  is  the  discriminating 
line  of  Christianity  from  heathenism ; '  that  assurance 
is  indeed  the  punctum  saliens  of  Luther's  system, 
an.d  unacquaintance  with  this,  his  great  central  doc 
trine,  is  one  prime  cause  of  the  chronic  misrepre 
sentation  which  runs  through  our  recent  histories  of 
Luther  and  the  Reformation ;  that  assurance  is  no 
less  strenuously  maintained  by  Calvin,  is  held  even 
by  Arminius,  and  stands  essentially  part  and  parcel 
of  all  the  confessions  of  all  Churches  of  the  Reforma 
tion  down  to  the  Westminster  Assembly."  Wesley 
defines  the  doctrine  clearly.  "By  the  testimony  of 
the  Spirit," he  says,  "I mean  an  inward  impression  on 
the  soul,  whereby  the  Spirit  of  God  immediately  and 
directly  witnesses  to  my  spirit  that  I  am  a  child  of 
God ;  that  Jesus  Christ  hath  loved  me,  and  given  him 
self  for  me ;  that  all  my  sins  are  blotted  out,  and  I, 
even  I,  am  reconciled  to  God.  I  do  not  mean  hereby 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  testifies  this  by  any  outward 
voice ;  no,  nor  always  by  an  inward  voice,  although 
he  may  do  this  sometimes.  Neither  do  I  suppose 
that  he  always  applies  to  the  heart  (though  he  often 


130        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

may)  one  or  more  texts  of  Scripture ;  but  lie  so 
works  upon  the  soul  by  his  immediate  influence,  and 
by  a  strong,  though  inexplicable  operation,  that  the 
stormy  wind  and  troubled  waves  subside,  and  there 
is  a  sweet  calm,  the  heart  resting  in  Jesus,  and  the 
sinner  being  clearly  satisfied  that  all  his  iniquities 
are  forgiven  and  his  sins  covered."  He  disclaims 
any  originality  in  his  teachings  on  the  subject,  and 
says,  "  "With  regard  to  the  assurance  of  faith,  I  appre 
hend  that  the  whole  Christian  Church  in  the  first 
centuries  enjoyed  it.  For  though  we  have  few 
points  of  doctrine  explicitly  taught  in  the  small 
remains  of  the  ante-Nicene  fathers,  yet,  I  think, 
none  that  carefully  read  Clemens  Rom  anus,  Igna 
tius,  Polycarp,  Origen,  or  any  other  of  them,  can 
doubt  whether  either  the  writer  himself  possessed  it, 
or  all  whom  he  mentions,  as  real  Christians.  And  I 
really  conceive,  both  from  the  Harmonia  Oonfes- 
sionum^  and  whatever  else  I  have  occasionally  read, 
that  all  reformed  Churches  in  Europe  did  once  be 
lieve,  c  Every  true  Christian  has  the  divine  evidence 
of  his  being  in  favor  with  God.' "  "  I  know  likewise 
that  Luther,  Melanchthon,  and  many  other  (if  not  all) 
of  the  reformers,  frequently  and  strongly  assert  that 
every  believer  is  conscious  of  his  own  acceptance 
with  God,  and  that  by  a  supernatural  evidence." 

For  his  doctrine  of  Sanctification,  "Wesley  adopted 
the  title  of  "  Perfection,"  because  he  found  it  so  used 


ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM.  131 

in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Paul  and  John  he  deemed 
sufficient  authorities  for  the  use  of  an  epithet  which 
he  knew,  however,  would  be  liable  to  the  cavils  of 
criticism.  The  Christian  world  had  also  largely 
recognized  the  term  in  the  writings  of  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  Macarius,  Kempis,  Fenelon,  Lucas, 
and  other  writers,  Papal  and  Protestant.  Besides 
incessant  allusions  to  the  doctrine  in  his  general 
writings,  Wesley  has  left  an  elaborate  treatise  on  it. 
Fletcher  of  Madeley,  an  example  as  well  as  an 
authority  of  the  doctrine,  published  an  essay  on  it, 
proving  it  to  be  scriptural  as  well  as  sanctioned  by 
the  best  theological  writers.  Wesley's  theory  of  the 
doctrine  is  precise  and  intelligible,  though  often  dis 
torted  into  perplexing  difficulties  by  both  its  advo 
cates  and  opponents.  He  taught  not  absolute,  nor 
angelic,  nor  Adamic,  but  "  Christian  perfection." 
Each  sphere  of  being  has  its  own  normal  limits; 
God  alone  has  absolute  perfection ;  the  angels  have 
a  perfection  of  their  own  above  that  of  humanity,  at 
least  of  the  humanity  of  our  own  sphere ;  un  fall  en 
man,  represented  by  Adam,  occupied  a  peculiar 
sphere  in  the  divine  economy,  with  its  own  rela 
tions  to  the  divine  government,  its  own  "  perfec 
tion,"  called  by  Wesley  Adamic  Perfection ;  fallen, 
but  regenerated  man,  has  also  his  peculiar  sphere 
as  a  subject  of  the  Mediatorial  Economy,  and 
the  highest  practicable  virtue  (whatever  it  may 


132        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

be)  in  that  sphere  is  its  "  perfection,"  is  Christian 
perfection. 

Admitting  such  a  theory  of  perfection,  the  most 
important  question  has  respect  to  its  practical  limit. 
"When  can  it  be  said  of  a  Christian  man  that  he  is 
thus  perfect?  Wesley  taught  that  perfect  Christians 
' "  are  not  free  from  ignorance,  no,  nor  from  mistake. 
We  are  no  more  to  expect  any  man  to  be  infallible 
than  to  be  omniscient.  .  .  .  From  infirmities  none 
are  perfectly  freed  till  their  spirits  return  to  God ; 
neither  can  we  expect,  till  then,  to  be  wholly  freed 
from  temptation ;  for  '  the  servant  is  not  above  his 
Master.'  Neither  in  this  sense  is  there  any  abso 
lute  perfection  on  earth.  There  is  no  perfection  of 
degrees,  none  which  does  not  admit  of  a  continual  in 
crease.  .  .  .  The  proposition  which  I  will  hold  is  this : 
i Any  person  maybe  cleansed  from  all  sinful  tempers, 
and  yet  need  the  atoning  blood.'  For  what?  for 
*  negligences  and  ignorances;'  for  both  words  and 
actions,  (as  well  as  omissions,)  which  are,  in  a  sense, 
transgressions  of  the  perfect  law.  And  I  believe  no 
one  is  clear  of  these  till  he  lays  down  this  corrupt 
ible  body."  Perfection,  as  defined  by  Wesley,  is 
not  then  perfection,  according  to  the  absolute  moral 
law ;  it  is  perfection  according  to  the  special  reme 
dial  economy  introduced  by  the  Atonement,  in 
which  the  heart,  being  sanctified,  fulfills  the  law  by 
love,  (Eom.  xii,  8,  10,)  and  its  involuntary  imperfec- 


ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM.  133 

tions  are  provided  for,  by  tliat  economy,  without  the 
imputation  of  guilt,  as  in  the  case  of  infancy  and  all 
irresponsible  persons.  The  only  question,  then,  can 
be,  Is  it  possible  for  good  men  to  so  love  God  that 
all  their  conduct,  inward  and  outward,  shall  be 
swayed  by  love  ?  that  even  their  involuntary  defects 
shall  be  swayed  by  it  ?  Is  there  such  a  thing  as  the 
inspired  writer  calls  the  "  perfect  love"  which  "  cast- 
eth  out  fear  ? "  (1  John  iv,  1 8.)  Wesley  believed  that 
there  is ;  that  it  is  the  privilege  of  all  saints ;  and 
that  it  is  to  be  attained  by  faith.  "  I  want  you  to 
be  all  love"  he  wrote.  "  This  is  the  perfection  I 
believe  and  teach ;  and  this  perfection  is  consistent 
with  a  thousand  nervous  disorders,  which  that  high- 
strained  perfection  is  not.  Indeed,  my  judgment  is, 
that  (in  this  case  particularly)  to  overdo  is  to  undo ; 
and  that  to  set  perfection  too  high  is  the  most 
effectual  way  of  driving  it  out  of  the  world." 
"  Man,"  he  says,  "  in  his  present  state,  can  no  more 
attain  Adamic  than  angelic  perfection.  The  per 
fection  of  which  man  is  capable,  while  he  dwells  in 
a  corruptible  body,  is  the  complying  with  that  kind 
command,  '  My  son,  give  me  thy  heart ! '  .  It  is  the 
loving  the  Lord  his  God  with  all  his  heart,  and 
with  all  his  soul,  and  with  all  his  mind."  Such 
is  his  much  misrepresented  doctrine  of  Christian 
perfection.  Wesley  taught  that  this  sanctifica- 
tion  is  usually  gradual,  but  may  be  instantaneous ; 


134:        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

as,  like  justification,  it  is  to  be  received  by 
faith. 

/  Such  are  the  theological  characteristics  of  Meth 
odism.  It  demands  the  assent  of  all  its  adult 
candidates  for  baptism  to  the  Apostles'  creed,  and 
has  in  its  Articles  a  general,  though  a  very  brief, 
platform,  consisting  of  the  leading  dogmas  of 
the  universal  Church ;  aside  from  these,  it  preaches, 
especially,  Universal  Redemption,  Assurance,  and 
Perfection.  The  latter  are  special  to  it,  not  so 
much  as  opinions,  (for  they  are  still,  more  or  less, 
common  to  the  Christian  world,)  but  by  the  spe 
cial  emphasis  with  which  Methodism  utters  them. 
They  are  the  staple  ideas  of  its  preaching,  of  its 
literature,  of  its  colloquial  inquiries  in  its  class- 
meetings,  prayer-meetings,  and  in  the  Christian 
intercourse  of  its  social  life.  Though  the  success  of 
the  denomination  cannot  be  explained  apart  from  its 
disciplinary  system  and  its  spiritual  energy,  yet 
unquestionably  its  spiritual  life  and  its  practical 
system  could  not  long  subsist  without  its  special 
theology. 

V I  have  remarked  on  the  striking  fact  that  "Wesley 
did  not  insert  in  the  theological  Articles  of  American 
Methodism  the  tenets  which  are  deemed  most  dis 
tinctively  "Wesleyan,  and  which  unquestionably  have 
been  a  chief  source  of  vitality  to  the  denomination ; 
but  a  still  more  singular  fact  remains  to  be  noticed; 


ITS  DOCTEINAL  SYSTEM.  135 

namely :  that  he  makes  no  theological  opinions 
requisite  for  membership  in  the  Church,  and  recog 
nises  no  creed  but  the  universal  symbol  of  the  early 
Church,  the  Apostles'  creed,  and  this  only  in  the 
administration  of  baptism.  Of  few  things  connected 
with  Methodism  does  Wesley  speak  oftener  or  with 
more  devout  gratulation  than  of  its  catholicity. 
"One  circumstance,"  he  says,  "is  quite  peculiar  to 
the  people  called  Methodists;  that  is,  the  terms 
upon  which  any  persons  may  be  admitted  into  their 
Society.  They  do  not  impose,  in  order  to  their 
admission,  any  opinions  whatever.  Let  them  hold 
particular  or  general  redemption,  absolute  or  con 
ditional  decrees.  .  .  .  They  think,  and  let  think. 
One  condition,  and  one  only,  is  required,  a  real 
desire  to  save  their  souls.  Where  this  is,  it  is 
enough ;  they  desire  no  more  ;  they  lay  stress  upon 
nothing  else;  they  ask  only,  'Is  thy  heart  herein 
as  my  heart  ?  If  it  be,  give  me  thy  hand.7  y>  "  Is 
there,"  he  adds,  "  any  other  Society  in  Great  Britain 
or  Ireland  that  is  so  remote  from  bigotry  ?  that  is  so 
truly  of  a  catholic  spirit?  so  ready  to  admit  all 
serious  persons  without  distinction  ?  Where  is  there 
such  another  society  in  Europe?  in  the  habitable 
world?  I  know  none.  Let  any  man  show  it  me 
that  can.  Till  then  let  no  one  talk  of  the  bigotry  of 
the  Methodists."  When  he  was  in  his  eighty-fifth 
year,  preaching  in  Glasgow,  he  wrote :  "I  subjoined 


136        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

a  short  account  of  Methodism,  particularly  insisting 
on  the  circumstance,  there  is  no  other  religious 
society  under  heaven  which  requires  nothing  of  men, 
in  order  to  their  admission  into  it,  but  a  desire  to 
save  their  souls.  Look  all  round  you ;  you  cannot 
be  admitted  into  the  Church,  or  Society  of  the  Pres 
byterians,  Anabaptists,  Quakers,  or  any  others,  unless 
you  hold  the  same  opinions  with  them,  and  adhere 
to  the  same  mode  of  worship.  The  Methodists  alone 
do  not  insist  on  your  holding  this  or  that  opinion. 
.  .  .  'Now,  I  do  not  know  any  other  religious  soci 
ety,  either  ancient  or  modern,  wherein  such  liberty 
of  conscience  is  now  allowed,  or  has  been  allowed 
since  the  age  of  the  Apostles.  Here  is  our  glorying, 
and  a  glorying  peculiar  to  us.  What  society  shares 
it  with  us  ?  "  The  possible  results  of  such  liberality 
were  once  discussed  in  the  Conference.  Wesley 
conclusively  determined  the  debate  by  remarking : 
t(  I  have  no  more  right  to  object  to  a  man  for  hold 
ing  a  different  opinion  from  me,  than  I  have  to  differ 
with  a  man  because  he  wears  a  wig  and  I  wear  my 
own  hair ;  but  if  he  takes  his  wig  off,  and  begins  to 
shake  the  powder  about  my  eyes,  I  shall  consider  it 
my  duty  to  get  quit  of  him  as  soon  as  possible."  "  Is 
a  man,"  he  writes,  "a  believer  in  Jesus  Christ?  and  is 
his  life  suitable  to  his  profession  ?  are  not  only  the 
main,  but  the  sole  inquiries  I  make  in  order  to  his 
admission  into  our  Society."  Did  he  design  the 


ITS  DOCTRINAL  SYSTEM.  137 

new  American  Church  to  be  equally  liberal  ?  As 
the  "  General  Rules,"  used  in  England,  were  retained, 
after  the  Christmas  Conference,  in  America,  as  the 
"  only  one  condition  "  of  membership,  and  the  "  Arti 
cles  of  Religion"  are  not  mentioned  in  these  Rules, 
but  placed  apart  in  the  Discipline,  are  not  the  Arti 
cles  to  be  considered  rather  as  an  indicatory  than  an 
obligatory  dogmatic  symbol ;  an  indication  to  sincere 
men,  seeking  an  asylum  for  Christian  communion, 
of  what  kind  of  teaching  they  must  expect  in  the 
new  Church,  but  not  of  what  they  would  be  required 
to  avow  by  subscription  ? 

The  Articles  and  the  General  Rules  are  both  parts  * 
of  the  organic  or  constitutional  law  of  American 
Methodism,  though  the  General  Rules  prescribe  the 
"  only  condition"  of  membership,  without  an  allusion 
to  the  Articles.  Conformity  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  is  required  by  its  statute  law  as  a  func 
tional  qualification  for  the  ministry ;  but  Church 
members  cannot  be  excluded  for  personal  opinions 
while  their  lives  conform  to  the  practical  discipline 
•of  the  Church ;  they  can  be  tried  and  expelled  for  \ 
"  sowing  dissensions  in  the  Societies  by  inveighing 
against  their  doctrines  or  discipline;"  that  is,  in 
other  words,  not  for  their  opinions,  but  for  their 
moral  conduct  respecting  their  opinions.  They  can 
not  be  expelled  for  anything  short  of  defects  which 
"are  sufficient  to  exclude  a  person  from  the  king- 


138        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

dom  of  grace  and  glory."     And  at  what  would  Wes 
ley  himself  have  more  revolted  than  the  assumption 
that  opinions,  not  affecting  the  Christian  conduct  of 
a  member  of  his  Society,  were  "  sufficient  to  exclude 
him  from  the  kingdom  of  grace  and  glory  ? "  *     This 
interesting  historical  fact   is  full  of  significance,  as 
an  example  of  that  distinction  between  indicatory  j 
and  obligatory  standards  of  theological  belief  which* 
Methodism  has,   perhaps,   had    the    honor  of   first 

*  Such,  it  will  scarcely  be  questioned,  is  the  right  of  communion 
possessed  by  a  person  already  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church; 
but  it  has  sometimes  been  a  question  whether  doctrinal  opinions  are 
not  required  for  admission  by  the  administrative  prescription  adopted 
since  Wesley's  day,  (Discipline,  Part  I,  chap.  2,  §  2):  "Let  none  be 
received  until  they  shall,  on  examination  by  the  minister  in  charge 
before  the  Church,  give '  satisfactory  assurances  both  of  the  correct 
ness  of  their  faith  and  their  willingness  to  keep  the  rules."  It  may  be 
replied,  1.  That,  according  to  Wesley's  definition  of  the  faith,  essential 
to  a  true  Church,  there  could  be  no  difficulty  here.  2.  That,  as  the 
requisition  is  merely  an  administrative  one  for  the  preachers,  and 
prescribes  not  what  are  to  be  "  satisfactory  assurances,"  etc.,  the  lat 
ter  are  evidently  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  pastor,  and  the  require 
ment  is  designed  to  afford  him  the  opportunity  of  further  instructing 
the  candidate,  or  of  receiving  from  him  pledges  .that  his  opinions  shall 
not  become  a  practical  abuse  in  the  society.  3.  If  the  rule  amounts 
to  more  than  this,  it  would  probably  be  pronounced,  by  good  judges 
of  Methodist  law,  incompatible  with  the  usages  and  general  system  of 
Methodism,  an  oversight  of  the  General  Conference  which  enacted  it. 
and  contrary  to  the  General  Rules,  as  guarded  by  the  Restrictive 
Rules.  4.  It  would  be  a  singular  and  inconsistent  fact,  that  opinions 
should  be  made  a  condition  of  admission  to  the  Church,  but  not  of 
responsibility  (except  in  their  practical  abuse)  with  persons  already 
in  the  Church.  (See  History  of  the  Religious  Movement,  etc.,  vol.  ii, 
p.  448.) 


ITS  DOCTRINAL   SYSTEM.  139 

exemplifying  among  the  leading  Churches  of  the 
modern  Christian  world.* 

*  See  Articles  of  Religion,  Appendix  II.  Wesley's  liberality  would 
startle  many  Methodists  of  our  day.  I  add  a  few  examples :  "  This 
in  Scripture,  perhaps  not  once  in  the  sense  we  now  use  it."  Notes 
term,  (converted.)  so  common  in  modern  writings,  very  rarely  occurs 
on  the  New  Testament,  Acts  iii,  19.  "  True  repentance  is  a  change 
from  spiritual  death  to  spiritual  life,  and  leads  to  life  everlasting." 
Acts  xi,  18.  "He"  that,  first,  reverences  God,  etc.;  secondly,  from 
this  awful  regard  to  him,  not  only  avoids  all  known  evil,  but  endeavors, 
according  to  the  best  light  he  has,  to  do  all  things  well,  is  accepted  of 
Him — through  Christ,  though  he  knows  him  not.  The  assertion  is 
express,  and  admits  of  no  exception.  He  is  in  the  favor  of  God,  whether 
enjoying  his  written  word  and  ordinances  or  not."  Acts  x,  35.  "A 
mystic,  who  denies  justification  by  faith  (Mr.  Law  for  instance)  may 
be  saved.  But  if  so,  what  becomes  of  Articulus  stantus  vel  cadentis 
Eccksice  ?  If  so,  is  it  not  high  time  ? 

Projicere  ampullas  et  sesquipedalia  verba, 

and  to  return  to  the  plain  word  ;  '  He  that  feareth  God  and  worketh 
righteousness  is  accepted  with  him?'"  Journal,  December  1st,  1767. 
"  I  have  not  for  many  years  thought  a  consciousness  of  acceptance 
to  be  essential  to  justifying  faith."  A.D.  17G8,  vol.  vii,  p.  495.  He 
published  for  the  edification  of  his  people  the  Life  of  one  of  the  most 
active  Unitarians  of  his  day,  and  in  the  Preface  remarks :  "  I 
was  exceedingly  struck  at  reading  the  following  Life:  having  long 
settled  it  in  my  mind  that  the  entertaining  wrong  notions  con 
cerning  the  Trinity  was  inconsistent  with  real  piety.  But  I  cannot 
argue  against  matter  of  fact.  I  dare  not  deny  that  Mr.  Firmin  was  a 
pious  man,  although  his  notions  of  the  Trinity  were  quite  erroneous." 
Vol.  vii,  p.  574.  "  Who  are  we  that  we  should  withstand  God?  Par 
ticularly  by  laying  down  rules  of  Christian  communion  which  exclude 
any  whom  he  has  admitted  into  the  Church  of  the  first-born  from 
worshiping  God  together.  0  that  all  Church  governors  would  con 
sider  how  bold  an  usurpation  this  is  on  the  authority  of  the  supreme 
Lord  of  the  Church  I  0  that  the  sin  of  thus  withstanding  God  may 
not  be  laid  to  the  charge  of  those,  who  perhaps  icith  a  good  intention, 


14:0        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Methodism  lias  naturally,  in  the  first  century  of 
its  history,  not  developed  largely  in  the  way  of 
systematic  divinity.  But  it  has  a  thorough  and  able 
doctrinal  exposition  in  the  "  Theological  Institutes  " 
of  Eichard  "Watson,  of  whom  Prof.  J.  W.  Alexander, 
of  Princeton  College,  says :  "  Turretine  is,  in  theol 
ogy,  instar  omnium  :  that  is,  so  far  forth  as  Black- 
stone  is  in  law.  Making  due  allowance  for  the  dif- 
erence  of  age,  "Watson,  the  Methodist,  is  the  only 
systematizer,  within  my  knowledge,  who  approaches 
the  same  eminence  ;  of  whom  I  use  Addison's  words  : 
'  He  reasons  like  Paley,  and  descants  like  Hall.' ': 
Another  systematic  work  is  now  in  progress  in 
the  German  language,  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  War 
ren  ;  *  one  of  the  most  important  contributions  from 
an  American  hand  to  modern  theological  literature. 
This  author  has  endeavored  to  determine  the  true 
relative  position  of  Methodist  theology,  and  says : 
"  There  are  four  great  complete  Christo-theologi- 
cal  systems,  the  contrarieties  of  which  are  so  fun 
damental  and  exhaustive  that  every  writer  on  sys- 

lut  in  an  over  fondness  for  their  own  forms,  have  done  it,  and  are  con 
tinually  doing  it!"  Notes,  Acts  xi,  11.  In  fine  lie  expresses  his 
whole  policy,  as  an  ecclesiastical  leader,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend:  "The 
first  of  your  particular  advice  is  '  to  keep  in  view  the  interests  of 
Christ's  Church  in  general,  and  of  practical  religion  ;  not  considering 
the  Church  of  England,  or  cause  of  Methodism,  but  as  subordinate 
thereto.'  This  advice  I  have  punctually  observed." 

*  Systematische  Theologie,  einheitlich  behandelt.     Yon  William  F. 
Warren.    Bremen,  1865. 


ITS  DOCTKINAL   SYSTEM.  141 

tematic  theology  who  is  not  willing  to  give  up  the 
essence  of  Christianity  itself  must,  in  respect  to 
them,  choose  and  maintain  a  definite  stand-point. 
The  four  mentioned  great  systems  "of  doctrine  are 
the  Roman  Catholic,  the  Calvinistic,  the  Lutheran, 
and  the  Wesley  an.  These  systems  rest  on  different 
conceptions  of  the  soteriological  relation  of  God  and 
man  as  established  by  Christ,  and  correspond  to 
different  stages  of  development  of  the  religious 
consciousness.  Besides  these  four  great  systems 
there  is  no  other  worthy  of  notice.  The  Greek 
Church  has  as  yet  formed  no  definite  regular  sys 
tem  of  doctrine,  and,  so  long  as  she  retains  her 
present  views,  can  form  none  which  can  radically 
differ  from  Romanism.  The  Church  of  England 
has,  much  less,  a  peculiar  complete  system.  Her 
theology  is  a  mass  of  the  most  discordant  elements. 
Her  books  of  doctrine  are  appealed  to  by  Calvinists 
and  Arminians,  Puritans  and  Puseyites,  Evangelicals 
and  Sacramentarians,  High  and  Low  Churchmen, 
and  with  about  equal  propriety.  If  she  is  less  one- 
Bided  than  the  Reformed  and  Lutheran  Churches, 
nevertheless  her  teaching  embraces  almost  all  the 
incompleteness  and  errors  of  them  both." 

"  According  to  the  Eoman  Catholic  view  of  Chris 
tianity,  salvation  is  imparted  through  the  (Papal) 
Church  alone,  and  is  conditioned  on  a  meritorious 
co-working  of  the  subject  with  grace.  With  thia 


14:2        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ground- view  all  the  other  peculiarities  of  the  system, 
as,  for  example,  the  doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of 
the  Church,  priestly  power,  the  merit  of  works,  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  purgatory,  picture-worship,  in 
dulgences,  angel  and  saint-reverencing,  etc.,  are 
closely  connected.  According  to  its  inmost  spirit 
and  essence,  Catholicism  is  nothing  other  than  an 
essentially  pagan  view  of  Christian  truth. 

"According  to  the  Calvinistic  view  of  Chris 
tianity,  the  salvation  or  non-salvation  of  each  human 
being  depends  absolutely  on  the  free  action  of  God 
toward  him.  God,  according  to  this  system,  has 
elected  to  certain  salvation  a  certain  unalterable 
number  of  mankind,  accurately  fixed  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  and  has  either  predes 
tinated  all  others  to  certain  damnation,  or  within  him 
self  resolved  to  permit  them,  unredeemed,  to  perish 
in  their  inherited  depravity.  This  eternal  twofold 
decree  he  executes  unfailingly  in  time  through  his 
gracious  sovereignty.  With  this  ground-view  of 
Calvinism,  all  its  other  peculiarities,  for  example, 
its  limited  (partial)  atonement,  its  total  denial  of 
human  freedom,  its  dogma  of  the  irresistibility  of 
grace  and  of  the  impossibility  of  apostasy,  are  inti 
mately  connected.  According  to  its  inmost  spirit 
and  essence,  this  system  is  a  conception  of  Chris 
tianity  from  the  stand-point  of  an  Old  Testament 
faith. 


ITS  DOCTRINAL   SYSTEM.  143 

"  According  to  the  Lutheran  view  of  the  soterio- 
logical  relation  of  God  and  man,  the  salvation  or 
non-salvation  of  each  human  being  is  solely  depend 
ent  on  his  own  personal  action  in  regard  to  the 
means  of  grace,  (the  word  and  the  sacraments.)  If 
any  one  uses  these  properly,  and  everybody  is 
capable  of  doing  this  through  his  own  natural 
powers,  then  God  will  give  to  him,  through  these 
means  of  grace,  faith,  and  with  faith  justification.  It 
he  continues  diligently  in  the  proper  use  of  the  word 
and  of  the  sacraments,  he  will  retain  the  received 
blessings  and  finally  overcome  death  and  hell. 
"With  this  ground-view  of  Lutheranism,  all  the 
other  peculiarities  of  the  system,  such  as  the  bodily 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  eucharist,  the  relative  over- 
estimation  of  the  sacraments,  over-attachment  to 
the  Church,  etc.,  are  closely  allied.  In  respect  to 
its  inmost  spirit  and  essence  this  creed  is  a  view 
of  Christianity  from  the  stand-point  of  justification. 

"According  to  the  Methodistic  view  of  the  sote-V'" 
riological  relation  of  God  and  man,  the  salvation 
or  non-salvation  of  each  human  being  depends 
on  his  own  free  action  in  respect  to  the  enlighten 
ing,  renewing,  and  sanctifying  inworkings  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  If,  in  respect  to  these  inworkings,  he 
holds  himself  receptively,  then  will  he  become 
holy  both  here  and  hereafter;  but  if  he  closes  his 
heart  against  the  same,  he  will  continue  in  death 


144        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

both  here  and  in  eternity.  With  this  ground-view, 
all  the  other  peculiarities  of  Methodism,  such  as 
its  peculiar  dogma  of  freedom,  its  emphasis  of  the 
working  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  its  doctrines  of  Christian 
perfection,  etc.,  are  intimately  connected.  In  respect 
to  its  inmost  spirit  and  essence  it  is  a  viewing  of 
Christianity  from  the  stand-point  of  Christian  per 
fection  or  perfect  love. 

"  Such  is  the  stand-point,  such  the  doctrinal  and 
historical  significance,  of  the  Methodistic  system.  It 
presents  Christian  theology  '  high  as  the  love  of 
God,  deep  as  the  want  of  man.'  It  is  the  ripe 
final  result  of  the  millennial-long  spiritual  study 
and  searching  of  the  Church  of  Christ  into  the 
truths  of  the  divine  revelation.  And  as  soon  as 
this  view  of  the  soteriological  relation  of  God  and 
man  shall  find  universal  prevalence  and  acceptance, 
BO  soon  will  the  salvation  or  non-salvation  of  the 
soul  cease  to  be  made  dependent  either  on  hu 
man  conduct  in  regard  to  a  particular  priest 
hood  or  an  eternal  decree  of  God,  or  on  the  mys 
terious  working  of  Church  ceremonies,  but  will  be 
regarded  as  depending  on  man's  own  action  in  re 
gard  to  the  enlightening,  renewing,  and  sanctifying 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Let  us  venture  to 
hope  for  an  early  dawn  of  that  day,  so  much  anti 
cipated  and  so  anxiously  wished  for  by  so  many 
and  such  earnest  spirits  of  our  time,  in  which  a 


ITS  DOCTEINAL  SYSTEM.  145 

new  and  rich  outgusliing  of  the  Holy  Ghost  will 
put  an  end  to  the  intolerable  disagreements  of  the 
old  Churches  and  creeds,  and  reveal  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  power  and  great  majesty." 

Such,  then,  is  Methodism,  as  seen  in  its  History,  its 
Practical  Economy,  and  its  Theological  Platform — 
a  system  of  spiritual  life,  of  Evangelical  liberalism, 
of  apostolic  propagandism.  As  such  it  has  pre-emi 
nent  claims  on  the  consideration  and  gratitude  of 
our  age ;  but  these  claims  it  has  further  demon 
strated  by  its  beneficent,  its  extraordinary  results, 
especially  in  this  new  world.  We  are  now  prepared 

to  consider  some  of  these  results. 

10 


PART    II. 

WHAT   HAS  METHODISM  ACHIEVED,  ENTITLING  IT 
TO  THE  PROPOSED  COMMEMORATION? 


CHAPTEE  I. 

ITS  SPECIAL  ADAPTATION  TO  THE  COUNTRY. 

METHODISM,  it  has  been  affirmed,  was  a  specia 
provision  for  the  early  religious  wants  of  this  nation. 
The  He  volution  opened  the  continent  for  rapid  settle 
ment  by  immigration.  A  movement  of  the  peoples 
of  the  old  world  toward  the  new  was  to  set  in  on  a 
scale  surpassing  that  of  the  northern  hordes  which 
overwhelmed  the  Eoman  Empire.  Much  of  this 
incoming  population  was  to  be  Eoman  Catholic, 
most  of  it  low,  if  not  semi-barbarous.  Some  extra 
ordinary  religious  provision  was  requisite  to  meet 
and  counteract  its  demoralizing  influence  on  the 
country. 

The  growth  of  population  was  to  transcend  the 
most  credulous  anticipations.  The  one  million  and 
a  quarter  (including  blacks)  of  1750,  the  less  than 
three  millions  of  1780,  were  to  be  nearly  four  mill- 


14:8        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ions  in  1790 ;  nearly  five  and  a  third  millions  in 
1800;  more  than  nine  and  a  half  millions  in  1820 ; 
nearly  thirteen  millions  in  1830.  Thus  far  they  were 
to  increase  nearly  thirty-three  and  a  half  per  cent,  in 
each  decade.  Pensioners  of  the  war  of  the  Revolu 
tion  were  to  live  to  see  the  "  Far  "West "  trans 
ferred  from  the  valleys  of  Virginia,  the  eastern  base 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Alleghanies,  and  the  center 
of  "New  York,  to  the  great  deserts  beyond  the 
Mississippi;  to  see  mighty  states,  enriching  the 
world,  flourish  on  the  Pacific  coast ;  and  to  read, 
in  New  York,  news  sent  the  same  day  from  San 
Francisco.  Men,  a  few  at  least,  who  lived  when 
the  population  of  the  country  was  less  than  three 
millions,  were  to  live  when  it  should  be  thirty 
millions. 

Methodism,  with  its  "  lay  ministry "  and  its 
"itinerancy,"  could  alone  afford  the  ministrations 
of  religion  to  this  overflowing  population  ;  it  was  to 
lay  the  moral  foundations  of  many  of  the  great 
states  of  the  West.  The  older  Churches  of  the 
colonies  could  never  have  supplied  them  with  "  reg 
ular"  or  educated  pastors  in  any  proportion  to 
their  rapid  settlement.  Methodism  met  this  neces 
sity  in  a  manner  that  should  command  the  national 
gratitude.  It  was  to  become  at  last  the  dominant 
popular  faith  of  the  country,  with  its  standard 
planted  in  every  city,  town,  and  almost  every  vil- 


ITS  SPECIAL  ADAPTATION  TO  THE  COUNTKY.    149 

lage  of  the  land.  Moving  in  the  van  of  emigra 
tion,  it  was  to  supply,  with  the  means  of  relig 
ion,  the  frontiers  from  the  Canadas  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  from  Puget's  Sound  to  the  Gulf  of  Cal 
ifornia.  It  was  to  do  this  indispensable  work  by 
means  peculiar  to  itself;  by  districting  the  land 
into  circuits  which,  from  one  hundred  to  five  hund 
red  miles  in  extent,  could  each  be  statedly  sup 
plied  with  religious  instruction  by  one  or  two 
traveling  evangelists  who,  preaching  daily,  could 
thus  have  charge  of  parishes  comprising  hundreds 
of  miles  and  tens  of  thousands  of  souls.  It  was 
to  raise  up,  without  delay  for  preparatory  training, 
and  thrust  out  upon  these  circuits,  thousands  of  such 
itinerants,  tens  of  thousands  of  local  or  lay  preach 
ers  and  exhorters,  as  auxiliary  and  unpaid  laborers, 
with  many  thousands  of  class-leaders  who  could 
maintain  pastoral  supervision  over  the  infant  socie 
ties  in  the  absence  of  the  itinerant  preachers,  the 
latter  not  having  time  to  delay  in  any  locality  for 
much  more  than  the  public  services  of  the  pulpit. 
Over  all  these  circuits  it  was  to  maintain  the 
watchful  jurisdiction  of  traveling  presiding  elders, 
and  over  the  whole  system  the  superintendence  of 
traveling  bishops,  to  whom  the  entire  nation  was 
to  be  a  common  diocese.  It  was  to  govern  the 
whole  field  by  Quarterly  Conferences  for  each  cir 
cuit,  Annual  Conferences  for  groups  of  ciicuits, 


150        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Quadrennial  Conferences  for  all  the  Annual  Confer 
ences.  It  was  to  preach  night  and  day  in  churches, 
where  it  could  command  them,  in  private  houses, 
school-houses,  court-houses,  barns,  in  the  fields,  on 
the  highways.  It  was  to  stud  the  continent  with 
chapels,  building  them,  in  our  times  at  least,  at  the 
rate  of  nearly  two  a  day.  It  was  to  provide  acade 
mies  and  colleges  exceeding  in  number,  if  not  in 
efficiency,  those  of  any  other  religious  body  of  the 
country,  however  older  or  richer.  It  was  to  scatter 
over  the  land  cheap  publications,  all  its  itinerants 
being  authorized  agents  for  their  sale,  until  its 
"  Book  Concern "  should  become  the  largest  relig 
ious  publishing  house  in  the  world.  The  best  au 
thority  for  the  moral  statistics  of  the  country,  him 
self  of  another  denomination,  (Dr.  Baird,)  was  at 
last  to  "  recognize  in  the  Methodist  economy,  as 
well  as  in  the  zeal,  the  devoted  piety  and  the  effi 
ciency  of  its  ministry,  one  of  the  most  powerful 
elements  in  the  religious  prosperity  of  the  United 
States,  as  well  as  one  of  the  firmest  pillars  of  their 
civil  and  political  institutions."  The  historian  of 
the  Republic  (Bancroft)  records  that  it  has  "  wel 
comed  the  members  of  Wesley's  Society  as  the 
pioneers  of  religion;  that  the  breath  of  liberty 
has  wafted  their  messages  to  the  masses  of  the 
people;  encouraged  them  to  collect  the  white  and 
negro,  slave  and  master,  in  the  green  wood,  for 


ITS  SPECIAL  ADAPTATION  TO  THE  COUNTRY.      151 

counsel  on  divine  love  and  the  full  assurance  ot 
grace;  and  carried  their  consolation  and  songs  and 
prayers  to  the  furthest  cabins  in  the  wilderness." 

It  would  indeed  appear  that  the  Methodist  move 
ment  was  thus  a  providential  intervention  for  the 
new  nation.  As  we  have  seen,  it  began  its  opera 
tions  here  at  the  dawn  of  the  Revolutionary  con 
troversy;  its  infancy  was  cotemporaneous  with  the 
infancy  of  the  Republic;  it  was  the  only  form  of 
religion  that  possessed  much  vitality  or  made  any 
progress  during  the  Revolutionary  struggle;  its 
denominational  organization  at  the  Christmas  Con 
ference  anticipated  the  national  organization  under 
the  Federal  Constitution ;  it  fairly  started  with  the 
Republic,  and  has  kept  pace  with  it,  establishing 
the  ordinances  of  religion  coextensively  with  the 
spread  of  the  population  and  the  laws  of  the  Govern 
ment.  It  not  only,  by  its  peculiar  system,  met  the 
emergent  moral  necessities  of  the  opening  continent, 
but  exerted  also  a  most  important  influence  on  the 
other  and  older  religious  provisions  of  the  land. 
"Whitefield's  repeated  passages  through  the  colonies 
had  aroused  the  Churches  for  the  coming  wants  of  the 
country.  The  "  Great  Awakening  "  under  Edwards, 
in  New  England,  had  subsided,  and  even  reacted ; 
Whitefield  restored  the  evangelical  vitality  of  New 
England,  and  it  has  never  since  been  lost.  The  Pres 
byterian  and  Baptist  Churches  of  the  middle  states 


152        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

were  quickened  into  their  subsequent  and  abiding 
energy  by  his  flaming  ministrations.  The  earliest 
religious  impulses  of  the  South  were  given  by  him. 
Methodism,  organized,  took  up  the  work  when  he 
fell  in  the  field,  and  it  has  never  ceased  to  advance, 
in  all  evangelical  denominations,  beyond  any  for 
eign  example.  Methodism  was  not  designed  to  sup 
plant  its  elder  sister  Churches  in  the  land,  but  to 
provoke  them  to  new  life  and  labors,  while  it 
accomplished  its  own  given  work.  It  nevertheless 
quickly  surpassed  them.  We  have  authentic  sta 
tistics  of  the  leading  Christian  denominations 
of  the  United  States  for  the  first  half  of  our  cen 
tury.  They  attest  conclusively  the  peculiar  adapt 
ation  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  Methodism 
to  the  moral  wants  of  the  country.  During  the 
period  from  1800  to  1850  the  ratio  of  the  increase 
of  the  ministry  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
has  been  as  6  to  1,  of  its  communicants  as  6  to  1 ; 
of  the  ministry  of  the  Congregationalists  as  4  to  1, 
of  their  communicants  as  2|  to  1 ;  of  the  ministry 
of  the  regular  Baptists  as  4  to  1,  of  their  communi 
cants  as  5f  to  1 ;  of  the  ministry  of  the  Presbyterians 
("  old  and  new  schools")  as  14  to  1,  of  their  commu 
nicants  as  83-  to  1 ;  of  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  (North  and  South)  as  19f  to  1, 
of  its  communicants  as  1T|  to  1.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind,  however,  that  most  if  not  all  these  relig- 


ITS  SPECIAL  ADAPTATION  TO  THE  COUNTKY.     153 

ions  bodies  have,  during  the  whole  of  this  period, 
been  more  or  less  pervaded  by  the  Methodistic  im 
pulse  given  by  Whitefield  and  his  successors,  and 
much  of  their  success  is  unquestionably  attributable 
to  that  fact.  Methodism  has  given  them  thousands 
of  its  converts  and  received  but  comparatively  few 
from  them. 


DIFFUSION  OF  LITERATURE.  155 


CHAPTER  II. 

ITS  LABORS  FOR  THE   DIFFUSION  OF  LITERATURE. 

METHODISM  has  always  appreciated  the  importance 
of  literature.  If  individual  prejudices  have  seemed 
to  indicate  the  contrary,  they  have  been  but  excep 
tional  to  the  general  sentiment  of  the  denomination. 
It  began  its  march  from  the  gates  of  a  university. 
Wesley  labored  incessantly,  by  his  pen,  for  the  eleva 
tion  of  the  popular  mind.  A  German  historian  of 
Methodism  classifies,  with  German  elaborateness, 
the  great  variety  of  his  literary  works,  as  Poetical, 
Philological,  Philosophical,  Historical,  and  Theo 
logical.  Though  he  wrote  before  Wesley's  death,  he 
states  that  many  of  these  writings,  after  ten  or  twenty 
editions,  could  be  obtained  only  with  difficulty,  and 
the  whole  could  not  be  purchased  for  less  than  ten 
guineas,  notwithstanding  they  were  published  at 
rates  surprisingly  cheap;  for  Wesley  was  the  first 
to  set  the  example  of  modern  cheap  prices  sustained 
by  large  sales.  A  catalogue  of  his  publications, 
printed  about  1756,  contains  no  less  than  one  hund 
red  and  eighty-one  articles  in  prose  and  verse, 
English  and  Latin,  on  grammar,  logic,  medicine, 
music,  poetry,  theology,  and  philosophy.  Two 


L56        CENTENAKY   OF  'AMEKICAN  METHODISM. 

thirds  of  these  publications  were  for  sale  at  less  than 
one  shilling  each,  and  more  than  one  fourth  at 
a  penny.  They  were  thus  brought  within  reach 
of  the  poorest  of  his  people.  "  Simplify  religion 
and  every  part  of  learning,"  he  wrote  to  Benson, 
who  was  the  earliest  of  his  lay  preachers  addicted 
to  literary  labors.  To  all  his  preachers  he  said, 
"See  that  every  society  is  supplied  with  books, 
some  of  which  ought  to  be  in  every  house." 

It  has  justly  been  said  that  Wesley  reduced  many 
folios  and  quartos  to  pocket  volumes;  he  waded 
through  the  mass  of  the  learned  works  of  his  day, 
and,  simplifying,  multiplying,  cheapening  them,  pre 
sented  in  the  cottages  and  hovels  of  the  poor  almost 
every  variety  of  useful  or  entertaining  knowledge. 
In  addition  to  his  own  prose  productions,  constitut 
ing  fourteen  octavo  volumes  in  the  English  edition 
and  seven  in  the  American,  his  "Notes"  and  abridg 
ments  make  a  catalogue  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen 
prose  works,  (a  single  one  of  which,  The  Christian 
Library,  contains  fifty  volumes,)  forty-nine  poetical 
publications  by  himself  and  his  brother,  and  five 
distinct  works  on  music.  Not  content  with  books 
and  tracts,  Wesley  projected,  in  August,  1777,  the 
Arminian  Magazine,  and  issued  the  first  number  at 
the  beginning  of  1778.  It  was  one  of  the  first  four 
religious  magazines  which  sprung  from  the  resusci 
tated  religion  of  the  age,  and  which  began  this 


DIFFUSION  OF  LITERATURE.  157 

species  of  periodical  publications  in  the  Protestant 
world.  Though,  nominally  devoted  to  the  defense 
of  the  Arminian  theology,  it  was  miscellaneous  in 
its  contents,  and  served  not  only  for  the  promotion 
of  religious  literature,  but  of  general  intelligence. 
He  conducted  it  till  his  death,  and  made  faithful 
use  of  it  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the 
people.  It  is  now  the  oldest  religious  periodical  in 
the  world.  It  may  be  questioned  whether  any  En 
glish  writer  of  the  last  or  the  present  century  has 
equaled  Wesley  in  the  number  of  his  productions. 

American  Methodism  has  always  been  true  to  this 
example  of  English  Methodism,  and  in  fact  has  far 
transcended  it.  Its  "Book  Concern"  is  now  the 
largest  religious  publishing  house  in  the  world.  As 
early  as  1789,  John  Dickins,  then  the  only  Methodist 
preacher  in  Philadelphia,  was  appointed  "  Book  Stew 
ard  "  of  the  denomination.  The  first  volume  issued  by 
him  was  the  "  Christian  Pattern,"  (Wesley's  transla 
tion  of  Kempis's  celebrated  "  Imitation ;")  the  "  Meth 
odist  Discipline,"  the  "  Hymn  Book,"  "  Wesley's  Prim 
itive  Physic ; "  and  reprints  of  the  first  volume  of 
the  "Arminian  Magazine,"  and  Baxter's  "Saint's 
Rest,"  followed.  The  only  capital  of  the  Concern 
was  about  six  hundred  dollars,  lent  to  it  by  Dickins 
himself.  In  1790  portions  of  Fletcher's  "Checks" 
were  reprinted.  In  1797  a  "  Book  Committee  "  was 
appointed,  to  whom  all  books  were  to  be  submitted 


J58        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

before  their  publication — a  guardianship  of  its  press 
which  has  ever  since  been  maintained  by  the  Church. 
In  1804  the  Concern  was  removed  from  Philadelphia 
to  the  city  of  New  York.  It  had  early  attempted 
the  publication  of  a  monthly  magazine,  in  imitation 
of  Wesley's  periodical,  but  failed,  till  1818,  when 
the  Methodist  Magazine  was  begun ;  it  still  prosper 
ously  continues  under  the  title  of  the  Methodist 
Quarterly  Review.  In  1824  the  Concern  secured 
premises  of  its  own  on  Crosby-street,  with  presses, 
bindery,  etc.  In  1823  the  "Youth's  Instructor,"  a 
monthly  work,  was  begun.  The  same  spirit  of  enter 
prise  led  to  the  publication  of  the  Christian  Advocate 
and  Journal,  which  appeared,  for  the  first  time,  on 
the  9th  of  September,  1826.  The  success  of  the  Ad 
vocate  was  remarkable.  "  In  a  very  short  time,"  writes 
Dr.  Bangs,  one  of  its  original  publishers,  "  its  number 
of  subscribers  far  exceeded  every  other  paper  published 
in  the  United  States,  being  about  twenty-five  thou 
sand  ;  and  it  soon  increased  to  thirty  thousand,  and 
was  probably  read  by  more  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  persons,  young  and  old."  It  should 
be  noticed,  also,  that,  at  the  earnest  request  of  Meth 
odists  west  of  the  mountains,  the  General  Conference 
of  1820  authorized  the  establishment  of  a  branch  of 
the  Book  Concern  in  Cincinnati,  a  precedent  which 
led  to  secondary  branches  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  The  rapid  increase  of  the  business  very 


DIFFUSION  OF  LITEKATUKE.  159 

soon  led  to  the  necessity  of  enlarging  its  buildings. 
Accordingly  all  the  vacant  ground  in  Crosby-street 
was  occupied.  But  even  these  additions  were  found 
insufficient  to  accommodate  the  several  departments 
of  labor,  so  as  to  furnish  the  supply  of  books,  now 
in  constantly  increasing  demand.  To  meet  this 
deficiency  five  lots  were  purchased  in  Mulberry- 
street,  between  Broome  and  Spring  streets,  and  one 
building  erected  in  the  rear  for  a  printing  office  and 
bindery,  and  another  of  larger  dimensions  projected. 
Soon  after  the  General  Conference  of  1832,  the 
agents  began  the  erection  of  the  front  building  on 
Mulberry-street;  and  in  the  month  of  September, 
1833,  the  entire  establishment  was  removed  into  the 
new  buildings.  In  these  commodious  rooms,  with  ef 
ficient  agents  and  editors  at  work,  everything  seemed 
to  be  going  on  prosperously,  when  suddenly  in  1836 
the  entire  property  was  consumed  by  fire.  The 
Cnureh  thus  lost  not  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  The  buildings,  all  the  printing 
and  binding  materials,  a  vast  quantity  of  books, 
bound  and  in  sheets,  a  valuable  library  which  the 
editor  had  been  collecting  for  years,  were  in  a  few 
hours  destroyed.  Fortunately  the  "  Concern  "  was 
not  in  debt.  By  hiring  an  office  temporarily,  and 
employing  outside  printers,  the  agents  soon  resumed 
their  business,  the  smaller  works  were  put  to  press, 
and  "  the  Church's  herald  of  the  news,  the  Christian 


160        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Advocate  and  Journal,  soon  took  its  flight  again 
(though  the  first  number  after  the  fire  had  its  wings 
much  shortened)  through  the  symbolical  heavens, 
carrying  the  tidings  of  our  loss,  and  of  the  liberal 
and  steady  efforts  which  were  making  to  reinvigorate 
the  paralyzed  Concern."  At  the  General  Confer 
ence  of  1836  the  plan  of  a  new  building  was  sub 
mitted  and  approved,  and  the  agents  entered  upon 
their  work  with  energy  and  perseverance.  The  new 
buildings  went  up  with  all  convenient  dispatch,  in  a 
much  better  style,  more  durable,  better  adapted  to 
their  use,  and  safer  against  fire  than  the  former. 
The  front  edifice  is  one  hundred  and  twenty-one 
feet  in  length  and  thirty  in  breadth,  four  stories 
high  above  the  basement,  with  offices  for  the  agents 
and  clerks,  a  bookstore,  committee  rooms,  etc.  The 
building  in  the  rear  is  sixty-five  feet  in  length,  thirty 
in  breadth,  and  four  stories  high,  and  is  used  for 
stereotyping,  printing,  binding,  etc. 

In  our  day  the  Methodist  Book  Concern,  aside 
from  that  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
which  was  founded  by  a  division  of  its  funds,  com 
prises  two  branches,  eastern  and  western,  and  seven 
depositories,  with  an  aggregate  capital  of  more  than 
$837,000.  Four  "Book  Agents,"  appointed  by  the 
General  Conference,  manage  its  business.  It  lias 
twelve  editors  of  its  periodicals,  nearly  five  hundred 
clerks  and  operatives,  and  between  twenty  and 


DIFFUSION   OF  LITEKATURE.  161 

thirty  cylinder  and  power  presses  constantly  in  oper 
ation.  It  publishes  above  five  hundred  "  General 
Catalogue  "  bound  books,  besides  many  in  the  Ger 
man  and  other  languages,  and  about  fifteen  hund 
red  Sunday-school  volumes.  Its  Tract  publications 
number  about  nine  hundred  in  various  tongues. 
Its  periodicals  are  a  mighty  agency,  including  one 
Quarterly  Review,  four  monthlies,  one  semi-monthly, 
and  eight  weeklies,  with  an  aggregate  circulation  of 
over  one  million  of  copies  per  month.  Its  quarterly 
and  some  of  its  weeklies  have  a  larger  circulation 
than  any  other  periodicals,  of  the  same  class,  in  the 
nation,  probably  in  the  world. 

The  influence  of  this  great  institution,  in  the  dif 
fusion  of  popular  literature  and  the  creation  of  a 
taste  for  reading  among  the  great  masses  of  the 
denomination,  has  been  incalculable.  It  has  scat 
tered  periodicals  and  books  all  over  the  valley  of  the 
Mississippi.  Its  sales  in  that  great  domain,  in  the 
quadrennial  period  ending  with  January  31,  1864, 
amounted  to  about  $1,200,000.  If  Methodism  had 
made  no  other  contribution  to  the  progress  of  knowl 
edge  and  civilization  in  the  New  World  than  that 
of  this  powerful  institution,  this  alone  would  suffice 
to  vindicate  its  claim  to  the  respect  of  the  enlight 
ened  world.  Its  ministry  has  often  been  falsely  dis 
paraged  as  unfavorable  to  intelligence ;  but  it  should 

be  borne  in  mind  that  its  ministry  founded  this  stu- 

11 


162        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

pendous  means  of  popular  intelligence,  and  has  con 
tinued  to  work  it  with  an  increasing  success  up  to  the 
present  time.  They  have  been,  as  we  have  seen, 
its  salesmen ;  they  have  scattered  its  publications 
over  their  circuits.  "Wesley  enjoined  this  service 
upon  them  in  their  Discipline.  "  Carry  books  with 
you  on  every  round,"  he  said ;  "  leave  no  stone 
unturned  in  this  work ;"  and  thus  have  they  spread 
knowledge  in  their  courses  over  the  whole  land,  and 
built  up  their  unparalleled  "  Book  Concern."  There 
has  never  been  an  instance  of  defalcation  on  the  part 
of  its  "  Agents ; "  it  has  never  failed  in  any  of  the 
financial  revulsions  of  the  country;  and  it  is  now 
able,  by  its  large  capital,  to  meet  any  new  literary 
necessity  of  the  denomination. 


ITS  EDUCATIONAL  EFFORTS.  163 


CHAPTER  III. 

ITS  EDUCATIONAL  EFFOKTS. 

CRADLED  in  a  university,  and  trained  by  such  men 
as  the  "Wesley s,  Fletcher,  Benson,  Coke,  Clarke,  "Wat 
son,  Methodism  could  not  be  indifferent,  much  less 
hostile,  to  the  education  of  the  people,  though  its 
poverty,  and  its  absorption  in  more  directly  moral 
labors  for  their  elevation,  did  not  at  first  allow  much 
scope  to  its  educational  measures.  Wesley,  how 
ever,  never  lost  sight  of  such  measures ;  and  it  is 
an  interesting  fact,  that  in  the  year  which  is  recog 
nized  as  the  epoch  of  Methodism,  the  date  of  its 
first  field  preaching,  and  among  the  miserable  peo 
ple  where  the  latter  began,  it  also  began  the  first 
of  its  literary  institutions.  And  if  anything  could 
enhance  the  interest  of  this  fact,  it  is  that  the 
founders  of  both  Methodistic  parties,  Calvinistic  and 
Arminian,  shared  in  the  founding  of  the  first  Meth 
odist  seminary.  "Whitefield  laid  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Kingswood  School ;  and  kneeling  upon  the 
ground,  surrounded  by  reclaimed  and  weeping  col 
liers,  prayed  that  "  the  gates  of  hell "  might  not 
prevail  against  it;  while  the  prostrate  multitude, 
now  awakened  to  a  new  intellectual  as  well  as  moral 


164        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

life,  responded  with  hearty  Amens.  Wesley  reared 
it  by  funds  which  he  reserved  from  the  income  of 
his  college  fellowship  or  received  from  his  followers. 
It  was  the  germ  of  the  later  institution  which  bears 
its  name,  and  which  has  become  an  educational 
asylum  for  the  sons  of  itinerant  preachers.  Its  ac 
commodations  were  subsequently  found  to  be  insuffi 
cient  for  the  growing  numbers  of  such  pupils,  and  the 
estate  of  "Woodhouse  Grove,"  not  far  from  Leeds, 
was  purchased  for  a  second  institution  of  the  same 
character.  In  our  day  from  two  hundred  to  two 
hundred  and  fifty  sons  of  preachers  and  mission 
aries  are  educated  within  them,  and  gratuitously 
boarded  and  clothed  during  a  term  of  six  years. 
The  Connection  has  expended  between  £300,000 
and  £400,000  upon  these  seminaries.  "Wesley  also 
early  projected  schools  for  poor  children  at  New 
castle  and  London.  His  preaching-house  at  the 
former  place  was  called  the  Orphan-House,  and  its 
deed  provided  that  it  should  maintain  a  school  of 
forty  poor  children,  with  a  master  and  mistress.  Its 
site  is  now  occupied  by  a  substantial  edifice  for  a 
Mixed  and  Infants'  Wesleyan  Day  School,  and  also 
a  Girls'  Industrial  School.  More  than  four  hundred 
children  are  daily  receiving  instruction  within  its 
walls.  He  maintained  for  years,  also,  a  school  at 
the  Old  Foundry. 
As  early  as  his  first  conference,  in  1744,  Wesley 


ITS  EDUCATIONAL  EFFORTS.  165 

proposed  a  theological  school  or  "  Seminary  for 
Laborers.1'  It  could  not  then  be  attempted  for 
want  of  funds.  The  project  was  reconsidered  at 
the  next  session,  and  failed  for  the  same  reason. 
Kingswood  School  was  made  a  kind  of  substitute 
for  it,  but  the  original  design  was  never  abandoned, 
and  is  embodied  to-day  in  the  two  effective  "  Theo 
logical  Institutions"  of  Richmond  and  Didsbury, 
and  the  two  "  Biblical  Institutes "  of  American 
Methodism.  Such  were  some  of  the  efforts  for  edu 
cation  made  by  the  Methodism  of  Wesley's  day. 
They  have  since  given  origin  to  a  system  of  educa 
tional  provisions  as  extensive,  if  not  as  effective,  as 
belongs  to  any  other  English  or  American  Protest 
ant  body,  except  the  Anglican  and  Scotch  Estab 
lishments  :  to  the  Wesley  College  in  Sheffield,  the 
Collegiate  Institution  in  Taunton,  (both  of  them  in 
a  collegiate  relation  to  the  University  of  London,) 
the  Wesleyan  Normal  Institution  at  Westminster, 
whose  stately  buildings  cost  $200,000,  and  accom 
modate  more  than  one  hundred  students  preparing 
to  be  teachers ;  to  a  grand  scheme  of  Day  Schools 
which  at  present  comprises  nearly  five  hundred 
schools  and  sixty  thousand  pupils. 

American  Methodism  early  shared  this  interest  of 
the  parent  body  in  education.  In  the  year  of  its  form 
al  organization  (1784:)  Coke  and  Asbury  projected  the 
Cokesbury  College,  and  laid  its  foundations  the  next 


166        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

year  at  Abingdon,  twenty-five  miles  from  Baltimore. 
In  1787  Asbury  consecrated  and  opened  it  with  public 
ceremonies.  In  1795  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  but  a 
second  edifice  was  soon  after  secured  in  Baltimore ; 
this,  however,  shared  the  fate  of  its  predecessor.  It 
has  been  supposed  that  these  disasters  not  only  dis 
couraged  Asbury,  but  led  him  fallaciously  to  infer  that 
Providence  designed  not  the  denomination  to  devote 
its  energy  to  education.  It  was  far  otherwise,  how 
ever,  with  that  great  man ;  he  no  longer  believed  that 
collegiate  or  pretentious  institutions  of  learning 
should  be  attempted  by  the  Church  while  yet  in 
its  infancy,  but  he  never  abandoned  the  design  of 
secondary  or  more  practically  adapted  institutions. 
lie  formed,  indeed  a  grand  scheme,  for  the  estab 
lishment  of  academies,  all  over  the  territory  of  the 
denomination.  As  far  south  as  Georgia,  contribu 
tions  in  land  and  tobacco  were  received  for  the 
purpose;  and  in  the  yet  frontier  settlements  of 
Kentucky,  such  institutions  were  attempted  under 
his  auspices.  At  Bethel,  Kentucky,  an  edifice  and 
organization  was  really  obtained,  but  financially 
broke  down  at  last.  In  1818  Dr.  Samuel  K.  Jen 
nings  and  other  Methodists  attempted  a  college  in 
Baltimore,  but  this  also  failed.  No  failures,  how 
ever,  no  discouragement,  could  obliterate  from  the 
mind  of  the  denomination  the  conviction  of  its 
responsibility  for  the  education  of  the  increasing 


ITS  EDUCATIONAL  EFFORTS.  167 

masses  of  its  people.  In  1820  the  General  Con 
ference  recommended  that  all  the  Annual  Confer 
ences  should  establish  seminaries  within  their 
boundaries ;  thus  proposing  to  supply  the  whole 
republic  with  such  schools,  though  with  consider 
able  territorial  intervals.  This  demonstration  of 
interest  for  education,  in  the  supreme  body  of  the 
Church,  was  prompted  by  the  spontaneous  enter 
prise  of  the  ministry  and  the  people,  who,  three 
years  before,  had,  chiefly  under  the  guidance  of  Dr. 
Martin  Ruter,  started  an  institution  in  New  En 
gland,  (at  New  Market,  N.  H.,)  still  distinguished,  in 
its  later  location,  at  Wilbraham,  Mass.,  and  in  1819 
another,  chiefly  under  the  guidance  of  Dr.  Nathan 
Bangs,  in  New  York  city,  afterward  transferred 
to  White  Plains,  N.  Y.  The  impulse  thus  given 
not  only  produced  numerous  academies,  but  led, 
in  1823,  to  the  beginning  of  Augusta  College, 
Ky.,  whose  edifice  was  erected  in  1825,  and  com 
menced  the  series  of  modern  collegiate  institu 
tions  under  the  patronage  of  the  Church,  so 
that  by  the  General  Conference  of  1832,  says 
the  biographer  of  Hedding,  Bishop  Clark,  "  the 
Wesleyan  University  had  been  established  at  Mid- 
dletown,  Conn.,  and  Dr.  Wilbur  Fisk,  of  the  New 
England  Conference,  was  at  its  head,  and  John 
M.  Smith,  of  the  New  York  Conference,  one  of  the 
professors.  Madison  College,  now  extinct,  but  whose 


168        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

place  has  since  been  supplied  by  Alleghany  College, 
had  gone  into  successful  operation,  in  Western  Penn 
sylvania  ;  J.  H.  Fielding  had  succeeded  II.  B.  Bas- 
com  as  president,  and  II.  J.  Clark  was  one  of  the 
professors;  both  were  members  of  the  Pittsburgh 
Conference.  Augusta  College  had  been  established 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Kentucky  and  Ohio 
Conferences ;  Martin  Ruter  was  president,  and  H.  B. 
Bascom,  J.  S.  Tomlinson,  J.  P.  Durbin,  and  Burr 
H.  M'Cown,  were  professors ;  all  of  them  members 
of  the  Kentucky  Conference  except  J.  P.  Durbin, 
who  belonged  to  the  Ohio.  In  the  south-west,  La- 
grange  College  had  been  established ;  Robert  Paine 
was  president,  and  E.  D.  Simms  one  of  the  pro 
fessors.  In  Virginia,  Randolph  Macon  College  had 
been  established,  and  M.  P.  Parks,  of  the  Virginia 
Conference,  was  one  of  its  professors,  and  Stephen 
Olin  was  soon  after  placed  at  its  head.  Thus  it 
will  be  seen  that  no  less  than  five  colleges  had 
sprung  into  existence  in  an  incredibly  short  time, 
and  were  already  in  successful  operation  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Church.  Several  conference 
seminaries  also  had  been  established ;  such  were  the 
Cazenovia  Seminary,  the  Maine  Wesleyan  Seminary, 
Wilbraham  Academy,  Genesee  "Wesley an  Seminary, 
Shelbyville  Female  Academy,  and  others,  which 
were  in  successful  operation  in  different  parts  of  the 
Church." 


ITS  EDUCATIONAL  EFFORTS.  169 

The  Church  could  not  pause  here.  Wesley,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  proposed  ministerial  education  at  his 
very  first  conference,  and  the  British  Methodists^  had 
embodied  the  proposition  in  two  imposing  "theo 
logical  institutions."  The  New  England  Methodists 
agitated  the  question  in  their  Church  periodical, 
and  in  1839  a  convention  was  called,  in  Boston,  to 
provide  such  an  institution.  It  was  founded  with 
the  title  of  the  Biblical  Institute ;  it  struggled  through 
severe  adversities,  was  at  first  connected  with  the 
Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn.,  then  with 
the  Methodist  Seminary,  at  Newbury,  Yt.,  but  at  last 
was  located  in  Concord,  1ST.  H.,  where  it  has  exerted 
no  inconsiderable  influence  upon  the  character  of  the 
New  England  Methodist  ministry.  In  1845  the 
Rev.  John  Dempster,  D.  D.,  of  New  York  city, 
became  its  professor  of  theology.  He  threw  his 
remarkable  energy  into  the  cause  of  ministerial 
education  throughout  the  denomination,  and  not 
only  forced  along  the  New  England  institution 
against  formidable  discouragements,  but  became  a 
leading  founder  of  the  north-western  seminary  at 
Evanston,  111.,  where  a  Chicago  Methodist  lady, 
by  the  gift  of  property  amounting  to  $300,000,  gave 
endowment  and  her  name  to  the  Garrett  Biblical 
Institute. 

Thus  boarding  academies,  colleges,  and  theolog 
ical  seminaries,  have  rapidly  grown  up  in  the 


170        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

denomination  till  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
alone  now  reports  no  less  than  25  colleges,  (including 
theological  schools,)  having  158  instructors ;  5,345 
students;  $3,055,861  endowments  and  other  prop 
erty;  and  105,531  volumes  in  their  libraries.  It 
reports  also  77  academies,  with  556  instructors  and 
17,761  students,  10,462  of  whom  are  females,  mak 
ing  an  aggregate  of  102  institutions,  with  714  in 
structors  and  23,106  students.  The  Southern  divi 
sion  of  the  denomination  reported  before  the  war 
12  colleges  and  77  academies,  with  8,000  students, 
making  an  aggregate  for  the  two  bodies  of  191  insti 
tutions  and  31,106  students. 

The  moral  and  social  influence,  in  England  and 
America,  of  such  a  series  of  educational  provisions, 
reaching  from  the  first  year  of  Methodism  to  our 
own  day,  must  be  incalculable;  and  could  it  point 
the  world  to  no  other  monuments  of  its  usefulness, 
these  would  suffice  to  establish  its  claims  as  one  of 
the  effective  means  of  the  moral  progress  of  the 
English  race  in  both  hemispheres  since  Wesley 
began  his  singular  career.* 

*  The  limits  of  this  work  will  not  admit  of  more  detail  in  these 
important  facts.  I  give,  however,  a  tabular  view  of  Methodist 
educational  institutions  in  the  United  States,  as  reported  in  1865,  m 
the  Appendix  No.  IY. 


ITS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ENTERPRISE.  171 


CHAPTEK  IY. 

ITS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL   ENTERPEISE. 

METHODISM  has  an  honorable  place  in  the  history 
of  Sunday-schools.  As  early  as  1769  a  young  Meth 
odist,  Hannah  Ball,  established  a  Sunday-school  in 
"Wycombe,  England,  and  was  instrumental  in  training 
many  children  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Holy  Scrip 
tures.  Doubtless  similar  attempts  were  made  before 
that  time,  but  they  were  only  anticipations  of  the  mod 
ern  institution  of  Sunday-schools.  In  1781,  while 
another  Methodist  young  woman  (afterward  the  wife 
of  the  celebrated  lay  preacher,  Samuel  Bradburn,) 
was  conversing  in  Gloucester  with  Robert  Raikes, 
a  benevolent  citizen  of  that  town  and  publisher  of 
the  Gloucester  Journal,  he  pointed  to  groups  of 
neglected  children  in  the  street,  and  asked  :  "  "What 
can  we  do  for  them  ? "  She  answered :  "  Let  us  teach 
them  to  read  and  take  them  to  Church !  "  He  imme 
diately  proceeded  to  try  the  suggestion,  and  the 
philanthropist  and  his  female  friend  attended  the  first 
company  of  Sunday-scholars  to  the  Church,  exposed 
to  the  comments  and  laughter  of  the  populace  as 
they  passed  along  the  street  with  their  ragged  proces 
sion.  Such  was  the  origin  of  our  present  Sunday- 


172        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

school,  an  institution  which  has  perhaps  done  more 
for  the  Church  and  the  social  improvement  of  Protest 
ant  communities  than  any  other  agency  of  modern 
times,  the  pulpit  excepted.  Raikes  and  his  humble 
assistant  conducted  the  experiment  without  ostenta 
tion.  Not  till  November  3,  1783,  did  he  refer  to  it 
in  his  public  journal.  In  1784  he  published  in  that 
paper  an  account  of  his  plan.  This  sketch  imme 
diately  arrested  the  attention  of  "Wesley,  who  inserted 
the  entire  article  in  the  January  number  of  the 
Arminian  Magazine  for  1785,  and  exhorted  his  people 
to  adopt  the  new  institution.  "  They  took  his  ad 
vice,"  says  an  historian  of  Methodism,  and  "  labor 
ing,  hard-working  men  and  women  began  to  in 
struct  their  neighbors'  children,  and  to  go  with  them 
to  the  house  of  God  on  the  Lord's  day."  The  same 
year,  as  we  learn  from  a  letter  of  Mary  Fletcher, 
her  husband,  "  lately  hearing  of  Sunday-schools, 
thought  much  upon  them,  and  then  set  about  the 
work."  He  soon  had  three  hundred  children  under 
instruction,  and  diligently  trained  them  till  his  last 
illness.  He  drew  up  proposals  for  six  such  schools  in 
Coalbrook  Dale,  Madeley,  and  Madeley  Wood.  He 
wrote  an  essay  on  "  the  Advantages  likely  to  Arise 
from  Sunday-Schools,"  and  designed  to  prepare  small 
publications  for  their  use,  but  his  death  cut  off  his 
plans. 
"Wesley's  earliest  notice  of  Sunday-schools  is  in  his 


ITS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ENTEKPKISE.  173 

Journal  for  July  18,  1784,  the  year  of  Raikes's  pub 
lished  account  of  them.  He  speaks  of  them  prophet 
ically  :  "  I  find  these  schools  springing  up  wherevef 
I  go ;  perhaps  God  may  have  a  deeper  end  therein 
than  men  are  aware  of ;  who  knows  but  some  of  these 
schools  may  be  nurseries  for  Christians  ?  "  They  were 
introduced  into  the  metropolis  by  the  Oalvinistic  Meth 
odist,  Rowland  Hill,  in  1786 ;  and  in  the  same  year 
they  were  begun  in  the  United  States  by  the  Method 
ist  bishop,  Francis  Asbury,  and  this  first  Sunday- 
school  of  the  New  "World  prefigured  one  of  the  most 
important  later  advantages  of  the  institution,  by 
giving  a  useful  preacher  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  "Wesley  mentions  in  1786,  that  five  hundred 
and  fifty  children  were  taught  in  the  Sunday-school 
of  his  society  at  Bolton,  and  the  next  year  he  found 
there  eight  hundred,  taught  by  eighty  "masters." 
Richard  Rodda,  one  of  his  preachers,  records  that,  in 
1786,  he  formed  a  Sunday-school  in  Chester,  and 
soon  had  nearly  seven  hundred  children  "under 
regular  masters."  Wesley  wrote  to  him  in  the  begin 
ning  of  1787 :  "  I  am  glad  you  have  taken  in  hand 
that  blessed  work  of  setting  up  Sunday-schools  in 
Chester.  It  seems  these  will  be  one  great  means  of 
reviving  religion  throughout  the  nation.  I  wonder 
Satan  has  not  yet  sent  out  some  able  champion 
against  them."  On  the  18th  of  April,  1788,  Wesley 
preached  at  Wigan  "  a  sermon  for  the  Sunday- 


174:        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

schools,"  and  "  the  people  flocked  from  all  quarters 
in  a  manner  that  never  was  seen  before."  The  year 
before  his  death  he  wrote  to  Charles  Atmore,  an 
itinerant  preacher:  "I  am  glad  you  have  set  up 
Sunday-schools  at  Newcastle.  This  is  one  of  the  best 
institutions  which  has  been  seen  in  Europe  for  some 
centuries."  Thus  is  Methodism  historically  connect 
ed  with  both  the  initiation  and  outspread  of  this 
important  institution.  Under  the  impulse  of  its  zeal 
the  Sunday-school  was  soon  almost  universally  estab 
lished  in  its  societies.  A  similar  interest  for  it  pre 
vailed  among  other  religious  bodies ;  and  in  three 
years  after  Raikes's  published  account  of  it,  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  children  were  receiving 
instruction  from  its  thousands  of  teachers.  The  Irish 
Conference  of  1794  voted :  "  Let  Sunday-schools  be  es 
tablished  as  far  as  possible  in  all  the  towns  of  this  king 
dom  where  we  have  societies  ;"  and  in  March,  1798,  a 
"  Methodist  Sunday-School  Society "  was  formed  at 
City  Road  Chapel,  London.  In  the  following  Decem 
ber  Drs.  Coke  and  Whitehead  preached  the  first 
sermons  before  it.  In  our  day  Methodism,  exclusive 
of  all  minor  sects  which  bear  the  name,  has  under  its 
direction  an  army  of  nearly  500,000  scholars  and 
more  than  80,000  teachers  in  England  and  Scotland. 
For  many  years  American  Methodism  made  no 
provision  for  the  general  organization  or  affiliation  of 
its  Sunday-schools.  Its  Book  Concern  issued  some 


ITS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ENTERPRISE.  175 

volumes  suitable  for  their  libraries,  chiefly  by  the 
labors  of  Rev.  Dr.  Durbin,  who  prepared  its  first 
Library  volume  and  its  first  Question  Book ;  but  no 
adequate,  no  systematic  attention  was  given  to  this 
sort  of  literature.  It  was  obvious,  on  a  moment's 
reflection,  that  an  almost  illimitable  field  for  the 
enlargement  of  the  business  of  the  Concern  and 
the  diffusion  of  useful  knowledge  was  at  its  com 
mand  in  this  direction.  Accordingly  the  "  Union  " 
was  organized  on  the  2d  of  April,  1827.  Dr.  Bangs 
says :  "  The  measure  indeed  was  very  generally 
approved,  and  hailed  with  grateful  delight  by  our 
friends  and  brethren  throughout  the  country.  It 
received  the  sanction  of  the  several  Annual  Confer 
ences,  which  recommended  the  people  of  their  charge 
to  form  auxiliaries  in  every  circuit  and  station,  and 
send  to  the  general  depository  in  New  York  for 
their  books ;  and  such  were  the  zeal  and  unanimity 
with  which  they  entered  into  this  work  that  at  the 
first  annual  meeting  of  the  society  there  were  re 
ported  251  auxiliaries,  1,025  schools,  2,048  superin 
tendents,  10,290  teachers,  and  63,240  scholars,  besides 
above  2,000  managers  and  visitors.  Never,-  there 
fore,  did  an  institution  go  into  operation  under  more 
favorable  circumstances,  or  was  hailed  with  a  more 
universal  joy,  than  the  Sunday-School  Union  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church."  This  great  success, 
however,  could  not  save  it  from  the  misfortunes  of 


176        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

bad  management.  Under  "  an  injudicious  attempt," 
writes  Dr.  Bangs  many  years  later,  "  to  amalga 
mate  the  Bible,  Tract,  and  Sunday-School  Societies 
together,  by  which  the  business  of  these  several 
societies  might  be  transacted  by  one  board  of  man 
agement,"  and  by  other  causes,  it  declined,  if  indeed 
it  did  not  fail,  until  resuscitated  by  the  zeal  of  some 
New  York  Methodists  and  by  an  act  of  the  General 
Conference  of  1840.  It  passed  through  modifica 
tions  till  it  assumed  its  present  effective  form  of 
organization,  and  grew  into  colossal  proportions 
under  the  labors  of  its  indefatigable  secretaries, 
Rev.  Drs.  Kidder  and  Wise.  It  now  has  (aside 
from  its  offspring  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  South)  13,400  schools,  more  than  150,000 
teachers  and  officers,  and  near  918,000  schol 
ars,  about  19,000  of  whom  are  reported  as  con 
verted  during  the  last  year.  There  are  in  the  libra 
ries  of  these  schools  more  than  2,529,000  volumes. 
They  are  supported  at  an  annual  expense  of  more 
than  $216,000,  besides  nearly  $18,000  given  to  the 
Union  for  the  assistance  of  poor  schools.  There  are 
circulated  among  them  semi-monthly  nearly  260,000 
"  Sunday-School  Advocates,"  the  juvenile  periodical 
of  the  Union.  The  numbers  of  conversions  among 
pupils  of  the  schools,  as  reported  for  the  last  eight 
een  years,  amounts  to  more  than  285,000,  show 
ing  that  much  of  the  extraordinary  growth  of  the 


ITS  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  ENTERPRISE.  177 

Church  is  attributable  to  this  mighty  agency.  Tho 
Union  has  four  periodicals  for  teachers  and  scholars, 
two  in  English  and  two  in  German,  and  their  aggre 
gate  circulation  is  nearly  300,000  per  number.  Its 
catalogue  of  Sunday-school  books  comprises  more 
than  2,300  different  works,  of  which  more  than  a 
million  of  copies  are  issued  annually.  Including 
other  issues,  it  has  nearly  2,500  publications  adapted 
to  the  use  of  Sunday-schools.  In  fine,  few  if  any 
institutions  of  American  Methodism  wield  a  mightier 

power  than  its  Sunday-School  Union. 

12 


ITS  MISSIONARY   LABOES.  179 


CHAPTER  Y. 

ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS. 

A  DISTINGUISHED  English  writer,  a  layman  of  the 
Church  of  England,  has  said  that  "  the  Methodism 
of  the  last  century,  even  when  considered  apart 
from  its  consequences,  must  always  be  thought  wor 
thy  of  the  most  serious  regard :  that,  in  fact,  that 
great  religious  movement  has,  immediately  or  re 
motely,  so  given  an  impulse  to  Christian  feeling 
and  profession,  on  all  sides,  that  it  has  come  to 
present  itself  as  the  starting-point  of  our  modern 
religious  history  ;  that  the  field-preaching  of  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  in  1739,  was  the  event  whence  the 
religious  epoch,  now  current,  must  date  its  commence 
ment  ;  that  back  to  the  events  of  that  time  must  we 
look,  necessarily,  as  often  as  we  seek  to  trace  to  its 
source  what  is  most  characteristic  of  the  present  time ; 
and  that  yet  this  is  not  all,  for  the  Methodism  of  the 
past  age  points  forward  to  the  next-coming  develop 
ment  of  the  powers  of  the  Gospel."  * 

These  remarks  are  especially  true  in  respect  to  the 
relation  of  Methodism  to  modern  Christian  Missions. 
The  idea  of  religious  Missions  is  as  old  as  Chris- 

*  Isaac  Taylor's  Wesley  and  Methodism,  Preface. 


180        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

tianity,  and  has  been  exemplified  by  the  Papal  Church 
through  much  of  its  history  and  in  the  ends  of  the 
world.  The  Moravians  early  embodied  it  in  their 
system.  In  the  Protestantism  of  England  it  had  bat 
feeble  sway  till  the  epoch  of  Methodism.  That 
sublime  form  of  it  which  now  characterizes  English 
Protestantism  in  both  hemispheres,  and  which  pro 
poses  the  evangelization  of  the  whole  race,  appeared 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Societies 
for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  had  previously  ex 
isted  in  Great  Britain,  but  they  were  provided  chiefly, 
if  not  exclusively,  for  the  Christianization  of  countries 
which,  by  reason  of  their  political  dependence  upon 
England,  were  deemed  to  have  special  claims  on 
British  Christianity — the  inhabitants  of  India  and 
the  Indians  of  North  America.  An  historian  of  mis 
sions,  writing  in  1844,  says  :  "  It  was  not  until  almost 
within  the  last  fifty  years  that  the  efforts  of  the  re 
ligious  bodies  by  whom  Christian  missions  are  now 
most  vigorously  supported  were  commenced."  * 

Methodism  was  essentially  a  missionary  movement, 
domestic  and  foreign.  It  initiated  not  only  the 
spirit,  but  the  practical  plans  of  modern  English 
missions.  Bishop  Coke  so  represented  the  enterprise 
in  his  own  person  for  many  years  as  to  supersede  the 
necessity  of  any  more  formal  organization  of  it,  but  it 
was  none  the  less  real  and  energetic.  The  historian 

*  Ellia's  History  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  voL  i,  p.  3. 


ITS  MISSIONARY   LABORS.  181 

just  cited  says :  "  The  "Wesleyan  Missionary  Society 
was  formed  in  1817,  but  the  first  Wesleyan  mission 
aries  who  went  out,  under  the  superintendence  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Coke,  entered  the  British  colonies  in  1786. 
The  Baptist  Missionary  Society  was  established  in 
1792  ;  the  London  Missionary  Society  in  1795  ;  and 
the  Edinburgh  or  Scottish  and  the  Glasgow  Mission 
ary  Societies  in  1796.  The  subject  also  engaged  the 
attention  of  many  pious  persons  belonging  to  the  Es 
tablished  Church,  besides  those  connected  with  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  and  by  members  of  that 
communion  the  Church  Missionary  Society  was  organ 
ized  in  the  first  year  of  the  present  century."  The 
London  Missionary  Society,  embracing  most  Dissent 
ing  bodies  of  England,  arose  under  the  influence  of 
Calvinistic  Methodism,  and  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  sprang  from  the  evangelical  Low  Church 
party  which  Methodism,  Calvinistic  and  Arminian, 
had  originated  in  the  Establishment,  Yenn,  the 
son  of  the  Methodist  churchman  Yenn,  being  its 
projector. 

Though  Bishop  Coke  represented  the  Arminian- 
Methodist  Mission  interest,  as  its  founder,  secretary, 
treasurer,  and  collector,  it  really  took  a  distinct 
form  some  six  years  before  the  formation  of  the 
first  of  the  above  named  societies.  Coke  spent 
more  than  a  year  in  bringing  the  ISTegro  missions 
before  the  English  people  immediately  after  his 


182        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

second  visit  to  the  West  Indies.  In  1786  a  formal 
address  was  issued  to  the  public  in  behalf  of  a  com 
prehensive  scheme  of  Methodist  missions.  It  was 
entitled  "  An  Address  to  the  Pious  and  Benevolent, 
proposing  an  Annual  Subscription  for  the  Support  of 
Missionaries  in  the  Highlands  and  adjacent  Islands 
of  Scotland,  the  Isles  of  Jersey,  Guernsey,  and  New 
foundland,  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Provinces  of 
Nova  Scotia  and  Quebec.  By  Thomas  Coke,  LL.D. 
1786."  It  speaks  of  "  a  mission  intended  to  be  estab 
lished  in  the  British  dominions  in  Asia,"  but  which 
was  postponed  till  these  more  inviting  fields  should 
be  occupied.  This  scheme  was  called  in  the  address 
an  "  Institution  ;"  it  was  really  such ;  though  not 
called  a  society,  it  was  one  in  all  essential  respects ; 
and  if  the  fact  that  it  was  not  an  extra-ecclesiastical 
plan,  but  a  part  of  the  system  of  Methodism,  should 
detract  from  its  claim  of  precedence  in  respect  to 
later  institutions  of  the  kind,  that  consideration 
would  equally  detract  from  the  Moravian  missions, 
which  were  conducted  in  a  like  manner.  The  Ad 
dress  filled  several  pages,  and  was  prefaced  by  a  let 
ter  from  Wesley  indorsing  the  whole  plan. 

The  next  year  (ITS  7)  the  Wesley  an  Missions  bore 
the  distinctive  title  of  "  Missions  established  by  the 
Methodist  Society."  At  the  last  Conference  attended 
by  Wesley  (1790)  a  Committee  of  nine  preachers, 
of  which  Coke  was  chairman,  was  appointed  to  take 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABOKS.  183 

charge  of  this  new  interest.  Coke  continued  to  con 
duct  its  chief  business ;  but  the  committee  were  his 
standing  council,  and  formed,  in  fact,  a  Mission 
Board  of  Managers  two  years  before  the  organi 
zation  of  the  first  of  British  missionary  societies. 
Collections  had  been  taken  in  many  of  the  circuits 
for  the  institution,  and  in  1793  the  Conference  for 
mally  ordered  a  general  collection  for  it.  Coke 
published  accounts  of  its  "receipts  and  disburse 
ments."  The  amount  for  1787  was  £1,167.  The 
names  of  eminent  Churchmen,  Dissenters,  and 
Calvinistic  as  well  as  Arminian  Methodists,  are 
reported  on  its  list  of  subscribers.  Among  them 
are  those  of  "Whitbread,  Wilberforce,  the  Thorn 
tons,  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  Earl  of  Belvidere,  Lord 
Elliott,  Lady  Mary  Fitzgerald,  Lady  Maxwell,  Sir 
Charles  Middleton,  (afterward  Lord  Barham,)  Sir 
Eichard  Hill,  Sir  John  Carter,  Sir  "William  Forbes, 
Lady  Smythe,  Hon.  Mrs.  Carteret,  and  the  Hon. 
Mrs.  Bouverie;  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dodwell,  of  Lincoln 
shire  ;*  Melville  Home,  of  Madeley ;  Berridge,  of 
Everton ;  Abdy,  of  Horsleydown ;  Dr.  Gillies,  of 
Glasgow  ;  Simpson,  of  Macclesfield ;  Pentycross,  of 
"Wallingford  ;  Easterbrook,  of  Bristol ;  Kennedy,  of 
Teston,  and  others. 

In  this  manner  did  Methodism  early  prompt  the 

*  This  clergyman  (of  the  Establishment)  several  years  afterward 
made  a  contribution  of  £10,000  to  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society. 


184        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

British  Churches,  and  call  forth  the  energies  of  the 
British  people,  in  plans  of  religious  benevolence  for 
the  whole  world.  Its  previous  missions  in  Scotland, 
Wales,  Ireland,  and  the  Channel  Islands  did  much 
for  the  reformation  of  the  domestic  population. 
Besides  its  efforts  in  1786  in  the  West  Indies,  it 
began  its  evangelical  labors  in  France  as  early  as 
1791,  and  its  great  schemes  in  Africa  in  1811 ; 
in  Asia  in  1814;  in  Australasia  in  1815;  in  Poly 
nesia  in  1822 ;  until,  from  the  first  call  of  Wesley 
for  American  evangelists,  in  the  Conference  of  1769, 
down  to  our  day,  we  see  the  grand  enterprise  reach 
ing  to  the  shores  of  Sweden,  to  Germany,  France, 
and  the  Upper  Alps ;  to  Gibraltar,  and  Malta ;  to 
the  banks  of  the  Gambia,  to  Sierra  Leone,  and  to 
the  Gold  Coast ;  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  to 
Ceylon,  to  India,  and  to  China ;  to  the  Colonists  and 
Aboriginal  tribes  of  Australia ;  to  New  Zealand,  and 
the  Friendly  and  Fiji  Islands ;  to  the  islands  of  the 
Western,  as  well  as  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere; 
and  from  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  Puget's  Sound. 
From  1803  to  the  present  tirneWesleyan  Methodism 
has  contributed  more  than  twenty  millions  of  dollars 
for  foreign  evangelization.  In  England  the  "  Church 
Missionary  Society"  alone  exceeds  its  annual  col 
lections  for  the  foreign  field ;  but  the  Wesleyan  So 
ciety  enrolls  more  communicants  in  its  Mission 
Churches  than  all  other  British  missionary  societies 


:-  ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  185 

combined.  The  historian  of  religion  during  the  last 
and  present  centuries  would  find  it  difficult  to  point 
to  a  more  magnificent  monument  of  Christianity. 
Methodism,  gathering  its  hosts  mostly  from  the  mines 
and  cottages  of  England,  has  embodied  them  in  this 
sublime  movement  for  the  redemption  of  the  world. 
Its  poor  have  kept  its  treasury  full.  They  have  sup 
plied  hundreds  if  not  thousands  of  their  sons  and 
daughters  as  evangelists  to  the  heathen ;  and  while 
they  have  thus  been  enabled  to  do  good  in  the  ex 
tremities  of  the  earth,  they  have  reaped  still  greater 
good  from  the  reacting  influence  of  their  liberality 
upon  themselves.  They  have  received  from  it  the 
sentiment  -of  self-respect  which  comes  from  well 
doing.  They  have  been  led  to  habits  of  frugality 
that  their  poverty  might  be  consecrated  by  liberality. 
They  have  been  elevated  above  the  perversion  of 
local  or  personal  sentiments,  by  sympathies  with 
their  whole  race.  They  have  been  led  to  a  knowl 
edge  of  the  geography  of  the  world,  and  to  habits 
of  reflection  upon  its  religious,  social,  and  political 
interests,  by  the  habitual  reading  of  missionary  intel 
ligence.  They  have  been  brought  into  closer  social 
as  well  as  Christian  communion  with  one  another 
by  their  frequent  missionary  meetings.  Thousands 
of  them  have  acquired  habits  of  public  usefulness 
by  the  management  of  their  missionary  affairs ;  and 
sentiments  of  universal  philanthropy  and  religious 


186        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

heroism  have  been  spread  through  their  ranks  to 
ennoble  their  own  souls  while  saving  the  souls  of 
others. 

Coke,  the  first  bishop  of  American  Methodism,  the 
first  Protestant  bishop  of  the  new  world,  was  to  the 
end  of  his  life  the  representative  character  of  Meth 
odist  Missions.  In  his  old  age  he  offered  himself  to 
the  British  Conference  as  a  missionary  to  the  East 
Indies ;  he  died  on  the  voyage,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Indian  Ocean.  His  death  struck  not  only  a  knell 
through  the  Church,  but  a  summons  for  it  to  rise  uni 
versally  and  march  around  the  world.  He  had  long 
entertained  the  idea  of  universal  evangelization  as 
the  exponent  characteristic  of  the  Methodist  move 
ment.  The  influence  of  the  movement  on  English 
Protestantism  had  tended  to  such  a  result,  for  in  both 
England  and  America  nearly  all  denominations  had 
felt  the  power  of  the  great  revival,  not  only  during 
the  days  of  Whitefield  and  Wesley,  but  ever  since. 
Anglo-Saxon  Christianity,  in  both  hemispheres,  had 
been  quickened  into  new  life,  and  had  experienced  a 
change  amounting  to  a  moral  revolution.  The  sub 
lime  apostolic  idea  of  evangelization  in  all  the 
earth,  and  till  all  the  earth  should  be  Christianized, 
had  not  only  been  restored,  as  a  practical  conviction, 
but  had  become  pervasive  and  dominant  in  the  con 
sciousness  of  the  Churches,  and  was  manifestly  thence 
forward  to  shape  the  religious  history  of  the  Protest- 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  187 

ant  world.  The  great  fermentation  of  the  mind  of 
the  civilized  nations — the  resurrection,  as  it  may  be 
called,  of  popular  thought  and  power — cotempora- 
neous  in  the  civil  and  religious  worlds,  in  the  former 
by  the  American  and  French  Revolutions,  in  the  lat 
ter  by  the  Methodist  movement,  seemed  to  presage 
a  new  history  of  the  human  race.  And  history  is 
compelled  to  record,  with  the  frankest  admission  of 
the  characteristic  defects  of  Thomas  Coke,  that  no 
man,  not  excepting  "Wesley  or  "Whitefield,  more  com 
pletely  represented  the  religious  significance  of  those 
eventful  times. 

Though  American  Methodism  was  many  years 
without  a  distinct  missionary  organization,  it  was 
owing  to  the  fact  that  its  whole  Church  organization 
was  essentially  a  missionary  scheme.  It  was,  in  fine, 
the  great  Home  Mission  enterprise  of  the  north 
American  continent,  and  its  domestic  work  demand 
ed  all  its  resources  of  men  and  money.  It  early 
began,  however,  special  labors  among  the  aborigines 
and  slaves.  The  history  of  some  of  these  labors 
would  be  an  exceedingly  interesting  and  even  roman 
tic  record,  but  our  limits  admit  but  this  passing 
allusion  to  them.  The  year  1819  is  memorable  as  the 
epoch  of  the  formal  organization  of  its  missionary 
work.  Dr.  Nathan  Bangs,  long  distinguished  as  its 
secretary  and  chief  representative,  was  also  its  chief 
founder.  He  made  it  the  theme  of  much  preliminary 


188        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

conversation  with  his  colleagues  and  the  principal 
Methodist  laymen  of  ~New  York  city.  Rev.  Dr. 
Laban  Clark  introduced  it  "by  a  resolution  to  the 
attention  of  the  metropolitan  preachers  at  their 
weekly  meeting,  "  consisting,"  says  Dr.  Bangs,  "  of 
Freeborn  Garrettson,  Samuel  Merwin,  Laban  Clark, 
Samuel  Howe,  Seth  Crowell,  Thomas  Thorp,  Joshua 
Soule,  Thomas  Mason,  and  myself.  After  an  inter 
change  of  thoughts  the  resolution  was  adopted,  and 
Garrettson,  Clark,  and  myself  were  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  draft  a  constitution.  "When  this  committee 
met  we  agreed  to  write,  each,  a  constitution,  then 
come  together,  compare  them,  and  adopt  the  one 
which  should  be  considered  the  most  suitable.  The 
one  prepared  by  myself  was  adopted,  submitted  to  the 
Preachers'  Meeting,  and,  after  some  slight  verbal  alter 
ations,  was  finally  approved.  "We  then  agreed  to  call 
a  public  meeting  in  the  Forsyth-street  Church  on  the 
evening  of  the  5th  of  April,  1819,  which  was  accord 
ingly  done.  I  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  after  the 
reading  of  the  constitution  Joshua  Soule  moved  its 
adoption,  and  supported  his  motion  by  a  powerful 
speech,  concluding  by  an  appeal  to  the  people  to  come 
forward  and  subscribe  it.  He  was  seconded  by  Free- 
born  Garrettson,  who  also  plead  in  favor  of  the 
scheme,  from  his  own  experience  in  the  itinerant 
field  from  Virginia  to  Nova  Scotia."  The  constitu 
tion  was  unanimously  adopted,  and  the  following 


ITS  MISSION AKY   LABORS.  189 

officers  were  chosen :  Bishop  M'Kendree,  President ; 
Bishops  George  and  Roberts,  and  Nathan  Bangs, 
Yice-Presidents ;  Thomas  Mason,  Corresponding  Sec 
retary  ;  Joshua  Soule,  Treasurer ;  Francis  Hall,  Clerk  ; 
Daniel  Ayres,  Recording  Secretary.  The  following 
managers  were  also  chosen :  Joseph  Smith,  Robert 
Mathison,  Joseph  Sanford,  George  Suckley,  Samuel 
L.  "Waldo,  Stephen  Dando,  Samuel  B.  Harper,  Lan 
caster  S.  Burling,  William  Duval,  Paul  Hick,  John 
"Westfield,  Thomas  Roby,  Benjamin  Disbrow,  James 
B.  Gascoigne,  "William  A.  Mercein,  Philip  J.  Arcula- 
rius,  James  B.  Oakley,  George  Caines,  Dr.  Seaman, 
Dr.  Gregory,  John  Boyd,  M.  II.  Smith,  Nathaniel 
Jarvis,  Robert  Snow,  Andrew  Mercein,  Joseph 
Moses,  John  Paradise,  "William  Myers,  William  B. 
Skidmore,  Nicholas  Schureman,  James  Wood,  Abra 
ham  Paul.  The  historian  of  the  society  (Dr.  Strick 
land)  says:  "It  is  obvious  that  almost  its  entire 
business  was  conducted  by  Dr.  Bangs  for  many  years. 
In  addition  to  writing  the  constitution,  the  address 
and  circular,  he  was  the  author  of  every  Annual 
Report,  with  but  one  exception,  from  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  society  down  to  the  year  1841,  a  period  of 
twenty-two  years.  He  filled  the  offices  of  Corre 
sponding  Secretary  and  Treasurer  for  sixteen  years, 
without  a  salary  or  compensation  of  any  kind,  until 
his  appointment  to  the  first  named  office  by  the 
General  Conference  of  1836.  That  he  has  con- 


190        CENTENARY   OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

tributed  more  than  any  other  man  living  to  give 
character  to  our  missionary  operations,  by  the  pro 
ductions  of  his  pen  and  his  laborious  personal  efforts, 
is  a  well  authenticated  fact,  which  the  history  of  the 
Church  fully  attests."  In  this  single  instance  of  his 
manifold  public  life  he  was  to  be  identified  with  a 
grand  religious  history.  He  was  to  see  the  annual 
receipts  of  the  Society  enlarged  from  the  $823  of  its 
first  year  to  $250,374,  (including  its  offspring  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  half  a  million,) 
and  its  total  receipts,  down  to  the  last  year  of  his  life, 
more  than  four  and  a  half  millions,  not  including  the 
southern  Society.  He  was  to  witness  the  rise  (chiefly 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Society)  of  American-Ger 
man  Methodism,  an  epochal  fact  in  the  history  of  his 
Church,  next  in  importance  to  the  founding  of  the 
Church  by  Embury  and  Strawbridge.  Without  a 
missionary  for  some  time  after  its  origin,  the 
Society  was  to  present  to  his  dying  gaze  a  list 
of  nearly  four  hundred  missionaries  and  more 
than  thirty-three  thousand  mission  communicants, 
representing  the  denomination  in  many  parts  of 
the  United  States,  in  JSTorway,  Sweden,  Germany, 
Switzerland,  Bulgaria,  Africa,  India,  China,  and 
South  America.  Assisting  in  this  great  work,  and 
rejoicing  in  its  triumphs,  he  was  to  outlive  all  its 
original  officers  but  three,  Joshua  Soule,  Francis 
Hall,  and  Daniel  Ayres :  and  all  its  original  mana- 


ITS    MISSIONAKY  LABORS.  191 

gers  save  three,  Dr.  Seaman,  James  B.  Oakley,  and 
William  B.  Skidmore. 

The  next  General  Conference,  in  1820,  sanctioned 
the  scheme.  Dr.  Emory  submitted  an  elaborate  re 
port  on  the  subject.  After  reasoning  at  length  upon 
it,  he  asked,  "  Can  we,  then,  be  listless  to  the  cause 
of  missions  ?  We  cannot.  Methodism  itself  is  a 
missionary  system.  Yield  the  missionary  spirit,  and 
you  yield  the  very  life-blood  of  the  cause.  In  mission 
ary  efforts  our  British  brethren  are  before  us.  We 
congratulate  them  on  their  zeal  and  their  success.  But 
your  committee  beg  leave  to  entreat  this  Conference 
to  emulate  their  example."  The  Conference  adopted, 
with  some  emendations,  the  constitution  prepared  for 
the  Society  by  Dr.  Bangs.  He  thus  saw  his  great 
favorite  measure  incorporated,  it  may  be  hoped  for 
ever,  into  the  structure  of  the  Church.  He  writes: 
"  These  doings  of  the  Conference  in  relation  to 
the  Missionary  Society  exerted  a  most  favorable 
influence  upon  the  cause,  and  tended  mightily  to 
remove  the  unfounded  objections  which  existed  in 
some  minds  against  this  organization." 

By  the  session  of  the  General  Conference  of  1832, 
the  Society's  operations  had  extended  through  the 
states  and  territories  of  the  nation,  and  had  become 
a  powerful  auxiliary  of  the  itinerant  system  of  the 
Church.  Hitherto  it  had  been  prosecuted  as  a  domes 
tic  scheme,  comprehending  the  frontier  circuits,  the 


192        CENTENAKY  OF  AMEBICAN  METHODISM. 

slaves,  the  free  colored  people,  and  the  Indian  tribes ; 
it  had  achieved  great  success  in  this  wide  field,  and 
was  now  strong  enough  to  reach  abroad  to  other 
lands.  It  proposed,  with  the  sanction  of  this  Confer 
ence,  to  plant  its  standard  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  and 
send  agents  to  Mexico  and  South  America  to  ascer 
tain  the  possibility  of  missions  in  those  countries. 
Thus  were  begun  those  foreign  operations  of  the 
Society  which  have  since  become  its  most  interesting 
labors. 

Its  domestic  Indian  missions  had  now  become  nu 
merous,  and  some  of  them  were  remarkably  prosper 
ous  ;  "  attended,"  Dr.  Bangs  says,  "  with  unparalleled 
success."  In  Upper  Canada  they  numbered,  in 
1831,  no  less  than  ten  stations  and  nearly  two  thousand 
Indians  "  under  religious  instruction,  most  of  whom 
were  members  of  the  Church.  Among  the  Cherokees, 
in  Georgia,  they  had  at  the  same  date  no  less  than 
seventeen  missionary  laborers,  and  nearly  a  thousand 
Church-members.  Among  the  Choctaws  there  were 
about  four  thousand  communicants,  embracing  all 
the  principal  men  of  the  nation,  their  chiefs  and 
captains."  And,  more  or  less,  along  the  whole  front 
ier,  Indian  Missions  were  established.  Meanwhile 
the  destitute  fields  of  the  domestic  work  proper  were 
dotted  with  humble  but  effective  mission  stations, 
front  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and 
these  stations  were  rapidly  passing  from  the  mission- 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  193 

ary  list  to  the  Conference  catalogue  of  appointments 
as  self-supporting  Churches. 

In  1832  Melville  B.  Cox  sailed  for  Africa,  the  first 
foreign  mission  ary  of  American  Methodism.  He 
organized  the  Liberia  Mission.  He  fell  a  martyr  to 
the  climate,  but  laid  on  that  benighted  continent  the 
foundations  of  the  Church,  never,  it  may  be  hoped, 
to  be  shaken.  The  next  year  a  delegation  from  the 
distant  Flathead  Indians  of  Oregon  arrived  in  the 
states  soliciting  missionaries.  Their  appeal  was  zeal 
ously  urged  through  the  Christian  Advocate,  and 
received  an  enthusiastic  response  from  the  Church. 
Dr.  Bangs,  who  had  been  a  leading  promoter  of  the 
African  Mission,  now,  in  co-operation  with  Dr.  Wil 
bur  Fisk,  advocated  this  new  claim  with  his  utmost 
ability.  Jason  and  Daniel  Lee,  and  Cyrus  Shepard, 
were  dispatched  as  missionaries  in  the  spring  of  1834. 
An  extraordinary  scheme  of  labors  was  adopted, 
involving  great  expense ;  but,  writes  Dr.  Bangs, 
"  the  projection  of  this  important  mission  had  a 
most  happy  effect  upon  the  missionary  cause  gener 
ally.  As  the  entire  funds  of  the  Society  up  to  this 
time  had  not  exceeded  eighteen  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  and  as  this  mission  must  necessarily  cost  con 
siderable,  with  a  view  to  augment  the  pecuniary  re 
sources  of  the  Society,  a  loud  and  urgent  call  was 
made,  through  the  columns  of  the  Christian  Advo 
cate  and  Journal,  on  the  friends  of  missions  to  '  come 

13 


194:        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord '  in  this  emergency ;  and 
to  assist  in  this  benevolent  work,  the  Messrs.  Lee 
were  instructed,  while  remaining  in  the  civilized 
world,  to  travel  as  extensively  as  possible,  hold  mis 
sionary  meetings,  and  take  up  collections.  The 
6  Flathead'  Mission,  as  it  was  then  called,  seemed  to 
possess  a  charm,  around  which  clustered  the  warm 
affections  of  all  the  friends  of  the  missionary  enter 
prise,  and  special  donations  for  the  i  Flatheads  '  were 
sent  to  the  treasury  with  cheering  liberality  and 
avidity.  As  an  evidence  of  the  beneficial  result  of 
these  movements,  the  amount  of  available  funds  had 
risen,  in  1834,  from  §17,097  05,  the  sum  raised  in 
1833,  to  $35,700  15.  So  true  is  it  that  those  who 
aim  at  great  things,  if  they  do  not  fully  realize  their 
hopes,  will  yet  accomplish  much." 

The  surges  of  emigration  have  overwhelmed  nearly 
all  that  grand  transmontane  region ;  the  aborigines  are 
sinking  out  of  sight  beneath  them ;  but  the  Oregon 
Mission,  after  some  useful  labors  among  the  Indians, 
became  the  nucleus  of  the  Christianity  and  civiliza 
tion  of  the  new  and  important  state  which  has  since 
arisen  on  the  North  Pacific  coast. 

Meanwhile  Fountain  C.  Pitts  was  sent  on  the  mis 
sion  of  inquiry  to  South  America.  In  the  autumn 
of  1835  he  visited  Rio  Janeiro,  Buenos  Ayres,  Monte 
Yideo,  and  other  places,  and  the  Methodist  South 
American  Mission  was  founded  the  next  year  by 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  195 

Justin  Spaulding.  Tims  had  the  Church  borne  at 
last  its  victorious  banner  into  the  field  of  foreign 
missions.  It  was  to  be  tried  severely  in  these  new 
contests,  but  to  march  on  through  triumphs  and  de 
feats  till  it  should  take  foremost  rank  among  denom 
inations  devoted  to  foreign  evangelization. 

At  the  General  Conference  of  1836,  it  was  found 
that  the  missionary  cause  had  grown  rapidly  since 
the  preceding  session.  In  the  last  single  year  its 
receipts  surpassed  those  of  any  preceding  year  by 
about  twenty-two  thousand  dollars ;  and  in  the 
various  missionary  stations  there  had  been  within 
the  same  time  an  accession  to  the  membership  of 
the  Church  of  more  than  four  thousand  converts. 
The  Liberia  Mission  was  now  organized  into  an 
Annual  Conference,  and  the  operations  of  the  Mis 
sionary  Society  had  assumed  such  importance,  and 
involved  such  responsibility,  as  to  justify,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Conference,  the  appointment  of  a 
special  officer,  or  "  Resident  Corresponding  Secre 
tary,"  who  could  devote  his  whole  attention  to  them. 
Of  course  the  mind  of  the  Conference,  as  indeed 
of  the  general  Church,  turned  spontaneously  to  Dr. 
Bangs  as  the  man  for  such  an  office,  and  he  was 
elected  by  a  majority  which  surpassed  that  of  any 
of  the  three  bishops,  or  any  of  the  numerous  editors 
and  Book  Agents  (save  one  of  the  latter)  who  were 
elected  by  ballot  at  this  session. 


196        CENTENAKY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

At  the  adjournment  of  the  Conference  he  returned 
to  New  York,  and  entered  with  energy  upon  his 
new  functions.  The  first  year  of  his  secretaryship 
(1S36-Y)  was  signalized  by  the  first  recognition  and 
announcement,  by  the  Missionary  Society,  of  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  events  in  the  history  of  mod 
ern  missions,  the  beginning  of  the  German  Meth 
odist  Missions.  Professor  Nast,  a  young  German 
scholar  of  thorough  but  Rationalistic  education,  had 
been  reclaimed  by  Methodism  to  the  faith  of  the 
Reformation.  In  1835  he  was  sent  to  labor  among 
his  countrymen  in  Cincinnati ;  in  1836  he  was  ap 
pointed  by  the  Ohio  Conference  to  a  German  charge 
on  the  Columbus  District,  comprising  a  circuit  of 
three  hundred  miles  and  twenty-two  appointments. 
Thus  originated  the  most  successful,  if  not  the  most 
important  of  Methodist  missions ;  and  in  the  next 
Annual  Report  of  the  Society  the  "  German  Mis 
sion,"  and  the  name  of  u  William  Nast,"  its  founder 
and  missionary,  were  first  declared  to  the  general 
Church.  German  Methodism  rapidly  extended 
through  the  nation,  to  Boston  in  the  north-east,  to 
New  Orleans  in  the  south-west.  German  Methodist 
Churches,  circuits,  districts,  were  organized.  "  In 
the  brief  space  of  fourteen  years,"  says  the  historian 
of  Methodist  Missions,  "  the  German  Missions  have 
extended  all  over  the  country,  yielding  seven  thou 
sand  Church  members,  thirty  local  preachers,  eighty- 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  197 

three  regular  mission  circuits  and  stations,  and  one 
hundred  and  eight  missionaries.  One  hundred 
churches  were  built  for  German  worship,  and 
forty  parsonages.  The  increase  in  membership  dur 
ing  the  past  year  (1848)  was  nearly  one  thousand. 
Primitive  Methodism  appears  to  have  revived  in  the 
zeal  and  simplicity  and  self-sacrificing  devotion  of 
the  German  Methodists.  May  they  ever  retain  this 
spirit!  JSTo  agency  has  ever  been  employed  so 
specifically  adapted  to  effect  the  conversion  of  Ro 
manists  as  that  which  is  immediately  connected  with 
the  German  Mission  enterprise.  The  pastoral  visita 
tions  of  the  preachers  bringing  them  into  immediate 
contact  with  German  Catholics,  their  distribution  of 
Bibles  and  tracts,  their  plain,  pointed,  and  practical 
mode  of  preaching,  all  combine  to  bring  the  truth 
to  bear  upon  that  portion  of  the  population ;  and 
the  result  is  the  conversion  of  hundreds  from  the 
errors  of  Romanism."  The  chief  importance  of  the 
German  Mission  has,  however,  been  developed  since 
this  date.  It  has  not  only  raised  up  a. mighty  evan 
gelical  provision  for  the  host  of  German  emigrants 
to  the  New  World,  but  under  the  labors  of  Dr. 
Jacoby,  it  has  intrenched  itself  in  the  German 
"  fatherland,"  and  is  laying  broad  foundations  for  a 
European  German  Methodism.  German  Societies 
and  circuits,  a  German  Conference,  a  German  "  Book 
Concern  "  and  German  periodicals,  and  a  Ministerial 


198        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM, 

School,  with  all  the  other  customary  appliances  of 
evangelical  Churches,  have  been  established  ;  and,  in 
our  day,  this  Teutonic  Methodism  comprises,  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  nearly  thirty  thousand 
communicants,  and  nearly  three  hundred  mission 
aries. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  trace  in  detail  the  further 
outspread  of  this  great  interest,  especially  under  the 
successful  administration,  since  1850,  of  its  present 
secretary,  Dr.  Durbin,  nor  is  it  requisite  to  the  plan 
of  the  present  volume.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
annual  receipts  of  the  Society  which,  the  year  be 
fore  his  administration  began,  amounted  to  about 
$104,000,  have  risen  to  nearly  $560,000,  and  that 
besides  its  very  extensive  domestic  work,  the  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church  has  now  missions  in  China, 
India,  Africa,  Bulgaria,  Germany,  Switzerland,  Den 
mark,  Norway,  Sweden,  and  South  America.  Its 
Missions,  foreign  and  domestic,  have  1,059  circuits 
and  stations,  1,128  paid  laborers,  (preachers  and  as 
sistants,)  and  105,675  communicants.  The  funds 
contributed  to  its  treasury,  from  the  beginning  down 
to  1865,  amount  to  about  $6,000,000.  About  350  of 
the  missionaries  preach  in  the  German  and  Scandi 
navian  languages,  and  more  than  30,000  of  the 
communicants  are  German  and  Scandinavian.  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  had  before  the 
rebellion  missions  in  China,  among  the  foreign  set* 


ITS  MISSIONARY  LABORS.  199 

tiers  in  the  United  States,  among  the  American  In 
dians,  and  the  southern  slaves.  About  three  hund 
red  and  sixty  of  its  preachers  were  enrolled  as 
missionaries. 

American,  like  British  Methodism,  has  become 
thoroughly  imbued  with  the  apostolic  idea  of  foreign 
and  universal  evangelization.  "With  both  bodies  it 
is  no  longer  an  incidental  or  secondary  attribute,  but 
is  inwrought  into  their  organic  ecclesiastical  systems. 
It  has  deepened  and  widened  till  it  has  become  the 
great  characteristic  of  modern  Methodism,  raising  it 
from  a  revival  of  vital  Protestantism,  chiefly  among 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  to  a  world- wide  system  of 
christianization,  which  has  reacted  on  all  the  great 
interests  of  its  Anglo-Saxon  field,  has  energized  and 
ennobled  most  of  its  other  characteristics,  and  would 
seem  to  pledge  to  it  a  universal  and  perpetual  sway 
in  the  earth.  Taken  in  connection  writh  the  Lon 
don  and  Church  Missionary  Societies,  the  British 
and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  the  London  Tract  Soci 
ety,  to  all  of  which  Methodism  gave  the  originating 
impulse,  and  the  Sunday-school  institution,  which  it 
was  the  first  to  adopt  as  an  agency  of  the  Church, 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  has  been  trans 
forming  the  character  of  English  Protestantism  and 
the  moral  prospects  of  the  world.  Its  missionary 
development  has  preserved  its  primitive  energy. 
According  to  the  usual  history  of  religious  bodies. 


200        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

if  not  indeed  by  a  law  of  the  human  mind,  its  early 
heroic  character  would  have  passed  away  by  its 
domestic  success  and  the  cessation  of  the  novelty 
and  trials  of  its  early  circumstances ;  but  by  throw 
ing  itself  out  upon  all  the  world,  and  especially 
upon  the  worst  citadels  of  paganism,  it  has  perpet 
uated  its  original  militant  spirit,  and  opened  for 
itself  a  heroic  career,  which  need  end  only  with 
the  universal  triumph  of  Christianity.  English 
Methodism  was  considered,  at  the  death  of  its 
founder,  a  marvelous  fact  in  British  history;  but 
to-day  the  "Wesleyan  missions  alone  comprise  more 
than  twice  the  number  of  the  regular  preachers 
enrolled  in  the  English  Minutes  in  the  year  of 
Wesley's  death,  and  nearly  twice  as  many  commu 
nicants  as  the  Minutes  then  reported  from  all 
parts  of  the  world  which  had  been  reached  by 
Methodism.  The  latest  reported  number  of  Mis 
sionary  communicants  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  equals  nearly  one  half  the  whole  membership 
of  the  Church  in  1819,  the  year  in  which  the  mis 
sionary  Society  was  founded,  and  is  nearly  double 
the  membership  with  which  the  denomination  closed 
the  last  century,  after  more  than  thirty  years  of 
labors  and  struggles. 


ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SERVICES.        201 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SERVICES. 

THE  first  American  missionaries  of  "Wesley,  being 
native  Englishmen,  and  uncommitted  to  politics, 
left  the  country  (all  except  Dempster,  Asbury,  and 
Whatcoat)  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution.  The 
infant  Church  therefore  suffered  for  some  time  under 
the  suspicion  of  disloyalty.  The  imputation  was, 
however,  unfounded.  Methodism  included  no  larger 
proportion  of  "  Toryism  "  than  any  other  denomina 
tion  of  the  times,  in  the  middle  states,  to  which  it 
was  yet  limited.  Wesley,  however,  strengthened  this 
suspicion  by  publishing  an  abridgment  of  his  friend 
Dr.  Johnson's  "  Taxation  E"o  Tyranny,"  under  the 
title  of  "  A  Calm  Address  to  the  American  Colonies," 
recommending  loyalty  to  the  crown.  It  is  due  to 
Wesley,  nevertheless,  to  say  that,  by  the  time  the  war 
really  began,  he  took  sides  with  the  Americans.  The 
very  next  day .  after  the  arrival  in  England  of  the 
news  of  the  battles  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  he 
wrote  to  Lord  North  and  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth, 
severally,  an  emphatic  letter.  "  I  am,"  he  said,  "  a 
High-Churchman,  the  son  of  a  High-Churchman, 
bred  up  from  my  childhood  in  the  highest  notions 


202        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

of  passive  obedience  and  non-resistance,  and  yet,  in 
spite  of  all  my  long-rooted  prejudices,  I  cannot  avoid 
thinking  these,  an  oppressed  people,  asked  for  noth 
ing  more  than  their  legal  rights,  and  that  in  the 
most  modest  and  inoffensive  manner  that  the  nature 
of  the  thing  would  allow.  But  waiving  this,  I  ask, 
Is  it  common  sense  to  use  force  toward  the  Amer 
icans  ?  "Whatever  has  been  affirmed,  these  men  will 
not  be  frightened,  and  they  will  not  be  conquered 
easily.  Some  of  our  valiant  officers  say  that  '  two 
thousand  men  will  clear  America  of  these  rebels.' 
No,  nor  twenty  thousand,  be  they  rebels  or  not,  nor 
perhaps  treble  that  number.  They  are  strong ;  they 
are  valiant ;  they  are  one  and  all  enthusiasts,  enthusi 
asts  for  liberty,  calm,  deliberate  enthusiasts.  In 
a  short  time  they  will  understand  discipline  as  well 
as  their  assailants.  But  you  are  informed  'they  are 
divided  among  themselves.'  So  was  poor  Rehoboam. 
informed  concerning  the  ten  tribes ;  so  was  Philip 
informed  concerning  the  people  of  the  Netherlands. 
No;  they  are  terribly  united;  they  think  they  are 
contending  for  their  wives,  children,  and  liberty. 
Their  supplies  are  at  hand,  ours  are  three  thousand 
miles  off.  Are  we  able  to  conquer  the  Americans 
suppose  they  are  left  to  themselves?  We  are  not 
sure  of  this,  nor  are  we  sure  that  all  our  neighbors 
will  stand  stock  still." 

Though  Bishop  Asbury  had  to  keep  himself  con- 


ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SERVICES.        203 

cealed  during  a  part  of  the  Kevolutionary  period,  he 
was  in  favor  of  the  independence  of  the  colonies. 

At  the  organization  of  the  denomination  in  1784, 
it  was  the  first  religious  body  of  the  country  to 
insert  in  its  constitutional  law  (in  its  Articles  of 
Religion)  a  recognition  of  the  new  government, 
enforcing  patriotism  on  its  communicants.  A  very 
noteworthy  modification  (peculiarly  interesting  in 
our  day)  was  made  in  this  article  in  the  year 
1804.  In  the  original  article  it  was  affirmed  that 
the  "  Congress,"  etc.,  "  are  the  officers  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  according  to  the  division  of  power 
made  to  them  by  the  General  Act  of  Confederation," 
etc.,  the  national  constitution  having  not  yet  been 
adopted  ;  but  the  General  Conference  of  1804,  by 
a  motion  of  Hev.  Ezeldel  Cooper,  (a  man  noted 
for  his  sagacity,)  struck  out  all  allusion  to  the 
"  Act  of  Confederation,"  inserting  in  its  stead  "  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  etc.,  and  declared 
that  "  the  said  states  are  a  sovereign  and  inde 
pendent  nation"*  Methodism  thus  deliberately, 

*  The  italics  are  my  own.  A  recent  paper,  "  The  Christian  Wit 
ness,"  in  the  interest  of  the  insurgent  South,  attacks  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  on  account  of  this  amended  Article.  "  We  regret," 
it  says,  "  that  we  have  to  mention  in  this  connection  what  was  incor 
porated  into  the  organization  [of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church] 
from  the  beginning,  but  has  been  generally  overlooked.  We  refer  to 
the  23d  Article  of  Religion,  which  is  as  follows:  'The  President,  the 
Congress,  the  General  Assemblies,  the  Governors,  and  the  Councils 
of  State,  as  the  delegates  of  the  people,  are  the  rulers  of  the  United 


204:        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

and  in  its  constitutional  law,  recognized  that  the 
"  Constitution "  superseded  the  "  Act  of  Confedera 
tion,"  and  that  the  republic  was  no  longer  a  con 
federacy  but  a  nation,  and  as  such,  supreme  and 
sovereign  over  all  its  states.  It  was  at  a  period  of 
no  little  political  agitation  on  the  question  of  state 
sovereignty  that  this  change  was  made:  the  Ken 
tucky  "Resolutions  of  1798,"  and  those  of  Yirginia, 
1799,  had  become  the  basis  of  a  State  Rights  party. 
A  cotemporary  Methodist  preacher  (Henry  Boehm, 
still  living)  records  that  just  previous  to  this  time 
"  there  was  great  political  excitement.  Federalism 
and  Democracy  ran  high — such  was  the  excitement 
that  it  separated  families,  and  friends,  and  members 

States  of  America,  according  to  the  division  of  power  made  to  them, 
by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by  the  Constitutions  of 
their  respective  States.  And  the  said  States  are  a  sovereign  and 
independent  nation,  and  ought  not  to  be  subject  to  any  foreign  juris 
diction,'  "  The  "  Witness  "  proceeds  to  say  that  "the  language  of  the 
Article  leans  very  strongly  toward  an  anti-democratic  view  of  tho 
relations  between  the  Federal  and  the  State  governments,  and  has 
been  often  so  construed  by  the  authorities  of  the  Church  since  our 
present  political  troubles  began.  It  has  been  referred  to  again  and 
again  by  the  Annual  and  General  Conferences,  by  the  official  papers, 
and  by  the  bishops  and  preachers,  as  decisive  of  the  position  which 
the  Church  holds  upon  tho  subject  of  State  rights."  The  "Witness" 
errs  in  saying  this  form  of  the  Article  existed  "from  the  beginning," 
but  is  correct  in  its  statement  of  the  Church's  interpretation  of  the 
Article.  After  the  adoption  of  the  National  Constitution,  Methodism 
never  doubted  the  sovereign  nationality  of  the  Republic,  and  never  had 
the  uustatesmanlike  folly  to  recognize  any  State  right  of  secession,  or 
any  sovereignty  which  is  not  subordinate  to  the  National  sovereignty. 


ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SERVICES.       205 

of  the  Church.  I  was  urged,  on  every  side,  to 
identify  myself  with  one  political  party  or  the  other, 
or  to  express  an  opinion.  I  felt  sad  to  see  what 
influence  this  state  of  feeling  was  producing  in  the 
Church."  It  was  in  such  circumstances  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  took  its  stand  for  the 
National  Constitution.  During  the  late  civil  war 
it  has  appealed  to  its  Article,  as  expressing  the 
loyal  duty  of  all  its  people,  and  they  have  responded 
to  the  appeal  with  a  patriotic  devotion  surpassed  by 
no  other  religious  communion  of  the  country. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  also  the  first 
religious  body  to  recognize  the  organization  of  the 
national  government  and  the  presidency  of  Washing 
ton.  Bishops  Coke  and  Asbury,  in  the  name  of  the 
Conference  in  session  at  ISTew  York,  waited  on  Wash 
ington,  t^hen  just  inaugurated,  on  May  29, 1789,  and 
Asbury  read  to  him  the  address  of  the  Conference. 
"  The  address,"  says  a  cotemporary  preacher,  "  and 
the  answer,  in  a  few  days,  were  inserted  in  the  public 
prints ;  and  some  of  the  ministers  and  members  of  the 
other  Churches  appeared  dissatisfied  that  the  Meth 
odists  should  take  the  lead.  In  a  few  days  the  other 
denominations  successively  followed  our  example.'5 
The  Address  of  the  Bishops  was  signed  by  Coke  and 
Asbury.  It  said,  "  We,  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  humbly  beg  leave,  in  the  name  of 
our  Society,  collectively,  in  these  United  States,  to 


206        CENTENARY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

express  to  you  the  warm  feelings  of  our  hearts,  and 
our  sincere  congratulations  on  your  appointment  to 
the  presidentship  of  these  states.  "We  are  conscious, 
from  the  signal  proofs  you  have  already  given,  that 
you  are  a  friend  of  mankind ;  and  under  this  estab 
lished  idea,  place  as  full  confidence  in  your  wisdom 
and  integrity  for  the  preservation  of  those  civil  and 
religious  liberties  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us 
by  the  providence  of  God  and  the  glorious  Revo 
lution,  as  we  believe  ought  to  be  reposed  in  man. 
"We  have  received  the  most  grateful  satisfaction 
from  the  humble  and  entire  dependence  on  the 
great  Governor  of  the  universe  which  you  have 
repeatedly  expressed,  acknowledging  him  the  source 
of  every  blessing,  and  particularly  of  the  most  excel 
lent  Constitution  of  these  states,  which  is  at  present 
the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  may  in  future 
become  its  great  exemplar  for  imitation ;  and  hence 
we  enjoy  a  holy  expectation,  that  you  will  always 
prove  a  faithful  and  impartial  patron  of  genuine 
vital  religion,  the  grand  end  of  our  creation  and 
present  probationary  existence.  And  we  promise 
you  our  fervent  prayers  to  the  throne  of  grace,  that 
God  Almighty  may  endue  you  with  all  the  graces 
and  gifts  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  that  he  may  enable 
you  to  fill  up  your  important  station  to  his  glory, 
the  good  of  his  Church,  the  happiness  and  prosper 
ity  of  the  United  States,  and  the  welfare  of  man- 


ITS  LOYALTY   AND   PATRIOTIC  SERVICES.        207 

kind.     Signed  in  behalf  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church." 

"Washington,  in  reply,  said:  "I  return  to  you 
individually,  and  through  you  to  your  Society  col 
lectively  in  the  United  States,  my  thanks  for  the 
demonstrations  of  affection,  and  the  expressions  of 
joy  offered  in  their  behalf,  on  my  late  appointment. 
It  shall  be  my  endeavor  to  manifest  the  purity  of 
my  inclinations  for  promoting  the  happiness  of 
mankind,  as  well  of  the  sincerity  of  my  desires 
to  contribute  whatever  may  be  in  my  power  toward 
the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of  the  American 
people.  In  pursuing  this  line  of  conduct,  I  hope, 
by  the  assistance  of  Divine  Providence,  not  alto 
gether  to  disappoint  the  confidence  which  you 
have  been  pleased  to  repose  in  me.  It  always 
affords  rne  satisfaction  when  I  find  a  concurrence 
of  sentiment  and  practice  between  all  conscientious 
men,  in  acknowledgments  of  homage  to  the  great 
Governor  of  the  Universe,  and  in  professions  of  sup 
port  to  a  just  civil  government.  After  mentioning 
that  I  trust  the  people  of  every  denomination,  who 
demean  themselves  as  good  citizens,  will  have  occa 
sion  to  be  convinced  that  I  shall  always  strive  to 
prove  a  faithful  and  impartial  patron  of  genuine 
vital  religion,  I  must  assure  you  in  particular,  that 
I  take  in  the  kindest  part  the  promise  you  make  of 
presenting  your  prayers  at  the  throne  of  grace  for 


208        CENTENARY   OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

me,  and  that  I  likewise  implore  the  divine  benedic 
tion  on  yourselves  and  your  religious  community." 

These  two  first  bishops  of  Methodism  were  inti 
mate  with  "Washington,  and  were  entertained  at  his 
table  at  Mount  Yernon,  where  they  held  patriotic 
consultations  with  him,  especially  on  the  subject  of 
slavery,  he  being,  as  they  have  recorded,  of  their 
own  sentiments  on  that  subject. 

On  this  great  national  question,  which  has  so 
fortunately  reached  its  solution  in  our  day,  Meth 
odism  has  always  borne  a  decided  testimony,  and 
has  contributed  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
Christian  denomination,  to  its  final  settlement.  If 
Quakerism  has  given  a  less  equivocal  verdict  on 
the  evil,  Methodism  has  done  incomparably  more 
effectual  work  against  it.  At  the  organization  of 
the  Church  it  enacted  a  law  against  it,  and  after 
ward  incorporated  into  its  constitutional  law  (its 
General  Eules  or  terms  of  membership)  a  prohibi 
tion  of  "  the  buying  and  selling  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  with  an  intention  to  enslave  them,"  a  law 
which  has  kept  its  honorable  record  down  to  this 
day.  The  early  Methodist  preachers,  who,  like 
Hatch  and  Garrettson,  inherited,  or  otherwise  came 
into  the  possession  of  slaves,  emancipated  them. 
"With  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Church  southward,  its 
stringent  opinions  on  the  subject  became  lax;  vio 
lent  discussions  and  parties  arose  within  its  com- 


ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SEEVICES.       209 

munion,  and  confusion  and  schism  followed ;  but  its 
primitive  standard  of  opinion  at  last  triumphed, 
and  at  the  General  Conference  of  1844,  rather  than 
endure  further  encroachments  from  the  barbarous  evil, 
it  suffered  the  greatest  schism  in  the  ecclesiastical  his 
tory  of  the  country,  the  secession  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  South,  by  which  it  lost  at  a  stroke 
nearly  half  its  members  and  half  its  territory. 

In  the  further  progress  of  the  antislavery  contro 
versy  as  a  national  question,  no  religious  com 
munion  of  the  country  has  been  more  energetic  than 
Methodism.  It  was  the  first  denomination  to  enter 
practically  and  prominently  into  the  contest,  not 
withstanding  the  opposition  of  many  of  its  strongest 
men;  and  if,  in  its  southern  and  schismatic  people, 
have  been  found  the  strongest  abettors  of  slavery 
and  rebellion,  northern  Methodism  has  redeemed  the 
denominational  honor  by  its  uncompromising  devo 
tion  to  the  slave  and  the  Constitution.  A  Meth 
odist  conference  (the  New  York  East  Conference)  was 
the  first  ecclesiastical  body  to  pledge  its  loyal  and 
utter  co-operation  with  the  government,  after  the 
attack  on  Fort  Sumter ;  and  by  a  happy  coincidence 
was  the  first  to  telegraph  congratulations  to  the 
government  at  the  downfall  of  the  rebellion,  by  the 
surrender  of  Lee.*  Methodism  has  contributed,  it 

*  This  Conference  happened  to  be  holding  sessions  at  the  time  01 
each  of  these  events. 

14 


210        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

has  been  estimated,  a  hundred  thousand  white  and 
seventy-five  thousand  black  troops  to  the  war  for 
the  Union.  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has 
thinned  its  congregations,  disbanded  many  of  its 
Sunday-school  and  Bible  classes,  by  these  patriotic 
contributions.  Its  pulpits  have  resounded  through 
the  war  with  enthusiastic  pleas  for  the  Constitution. 
Its  entire  denominational  press  (the  most  extensive 
in  the  land)  has,  without  one  exception,  been  fer 
vently  and  continually  devoted  to  the  national  cause. 
The  national  flag  has  waved  from  its  spires  and 
draped  its  pulpits,  and  its  characteristic  enthusiasm 
has  been  kindled  to  the  highest  fervor  by  the  national 
struggle.  Many  of  its  preachers  have  followed  the 
army  as  chaplains,  others  as  officers,  and  others 
as  privates.  Thousands  of  Methodist  martyrs  for 
the  Union  sleep  under  the  sod  of  southern  battle 
fields.  In  fine,  Methodism,  as  the  chief  religious 
embodiment  of  the  common  people,  has  felt  that 
its  destiny  is  identical  with  that  of  the  country,  and 
has  thrown  its  utmost  energy  into  the  great  strug 
gle  for  the  national  life.  The  government  has  recog 
nized  its  services,  and,  at  its  last  General  Conference, 
President  Lincoln  addressed  it  an  emphatic  testimo 
nial,  saying:  "Nobly  sustained  as  the  Government  has 
been  by  all  the  Churches,  I  would  utter  nothing  which 
might  in  the  least  appear  invidious  against  any.  Yet 
without  this  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  Methodist 


ITS  LOYALTY  AND  PATRIOTIC  SERVICES.        211 

Episcopal  Church,  not  less  devoted  than  the  best,  is, 
by  its  greater  numbers,  the  most  important  of  all. 
It  is  no  fault  in  others  that  the  Methodist  Church 
sends  more  soldiers  to  the  field,  more  nurses  to  the 
hospitals,  and  more  prayers  to  heaven  than  any. 
God  bless  the  Methodist  Church !  bless  all  the 
Churches!  and  blessed  be  God!  who  in  this  our 
great  trial  giveth  us  the  Churches." 


SUMMARY  VIEW.  213 


CHAPTEE  VII. 

SUMMARY  VIEW. 

SUCH,  then,  is  Methodism,  historically  viewed;  such 
the  results  which  entitle  its  birth  in  the  New  World 
to  the  grateful  commemoration  of  its  people. 

Embury's  little  congregation  of  five  persons,  in 
his  own  house,  has  multiplied  to  thousands  of  Soci 
eties,  from  the  northernmost  settlements  of  Canada 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  from  Nova  Scotia  to  Cali 
fornia.  The  first  small  conference  of  1773,  with  its 
10  preachers  and  its  1,160  reported  members,  has 
multiplied  to  60  conferences,  6,821  itinerant,  8,205 
local  preachers,  and  928,320  members  in  the  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Church  alone,  exclusive  of  the  south 
ern,  the  Canadian  and  minor  branches,  all  the  off 
spring  of  the  Church  founded  in  1766  and  episco- 
pally  organized  in  1784. 

It  has  property  in  churches  and  parsonages 
amounting  to  about  $27,000,000. 

It  has  25  colleges  and  theological  schools,  with 
property  amounting  to  $3,055,000,  158  instructors, 
and  5,345  students;  and  77  academies,  with  556 
instructors  and  17,761  students;  making  a  body  of 
714  instructors,  and  an  army  of  23,106  students. 


214        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

Its  church  property,  (churches,  parsonages,  and 
colleges,  aside  from  its  77  academies  and  Book  Con 
cern,)  amounts  to  $30,055,000. 

Its  Book  Concern  has  a  capital  of  $837,000 ;  500 
publishing  agents,  editors,  clerks,  and  operatives; 
with  some  thirty  cylinder  power  presses  in  constant 
operation,  about  2,000  different  books  on  its  cata 
logue,  besides  tracts,  etc. ;  14  periodicals,  with  an 
aggregate  circulation  of  more  than  1,000,000  cop 
ies  per  month.* 

Its  Sunday-School  Union  comprises  13,400  schools ; 
more  than  150,000  instructors;  nearly  918,000  pu 
pils;  and  more  than  2,500,000  library  books.  It 
issues  nearly  2,500  publications,  besides  a  monthly 
circulation  of  nearly  300,000  numbers  of  its  peri 
odicals. 

Its  Missionary  Society  has  1,059  circuits  and  sta 
tions;  1,128  paid  laborers,  and  105,675  communi 
cants. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  has  pub 
lished  no  statistics  since  the  rebellion  'broke  out ;  it 
has  doubtless  suffered  much  by  the  war,  but  it 
reported,  the  last  year  before  the  rebellion,  nearly 
700,000  Church  members,  nearly  2,600  itinerant  and 
5,000  local  members.  It  had  12  periodical  publica 
tions,  12  colleges,  and  77  academies,  with  8,000  stu- 

*  There  are  five  independent  weekly  papers  in  .the  Church  beside3 
the  above  number  of  "  official "  periodicals. 


SUMMARY  VIEW.  215 

dents.  Its  Missionary  Society  sustained,  at  home 
and  abroad,  about  360  missionaries  and  8  manual 
labor  schools,  with  nearly  500  pupils. 

According  to  these  figures  the  two  great  Episcopal 
(^visions  of  the  denomination  have  had,  at  their 
latest  reports,  1,628,320  members;  9,421  traveling, 
and  13,205  local  preachers;  with  191  colleges  and 
academies,  and  31,106  students.* 

The  Canada  Wesley  an  Church  was  not  only 
founded  by,  but  for  many  years  belonged  to,  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  it  now  reports  more 
than  56,000  members,  500  itinerant  preachers,  and 
750  Sunday-schools  with  about  45,000  pupils;  a 
university,  a  female  college,  and  a  Book  Concern 
with  its  weekly  periodical. 

Another  branch  of  Canadian  Methodism,  the 
"  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Canada,"  equally 
the  child  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States,  reports  3  Annual  Conferences,  2 
bishops,  216  traveling  and  224  local  preachers,  and 
20,000  members ;  a  seminary  and  female  college,  and 
a  weekly  newspaper. 

The  Canadian  Wesleyan  Methodist  New  Connec- 

*  Some  of  these  figures  differ  slightly  from  enumerations  given 
elsewhere  in  this  volume ;  the  latter  were  made  from  earlier  data,  and 
went  to  press  before  the  former  reached  me ;  they  do  not,  however, 
materially  affect  the  aggregates.  Methodism,  in  common  with  other 
Churches,  has  suffered  by  the  late  period  of  political  and  military 
agitation. 


216        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

tion  Church  reports  90  traveling  and  147  local 
preachers,  and  8,450  communicants.  It  sustains  a 
weekly  paper  and  a  theological  school. 

The  other  Methodist  bodies,  in  the  United  States, 
are  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church,  the  American 
Wesleyan  Methodists,  the  African  Methodist  Episco 
pal  Church,  and  some  three  or  four  smaller  sects; 
their  aggregate  membership  amounts  to  about 
260,000 ;  their  preachers  to  3,423.* 

Adding  the  traveling  preachers  to  the  membership, 
there  are  now  in  the  United  States  about  1,901,164 
Methodist  communicants.  Adding  three  non-com 
municant  members  of  its  congregations  for  each  com 
municant,  it  has  under  its  influence  7,604,656  souls — 
between  one  fifth  and  one  fourth  of  the  whole 
national  population. 

Aggregately  there  are  now  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada, f  as  the  results  of  the  Methodism  of 
1766,  1,972,770  Church  members,  13,650  traveling 
preachers,  15,000  local  preachers,  nearly  200  col 
leges  and  academies,  and  more  than  30  periodical 
publications ;  1,986,420  communicants,  including 
preachers,  and  nearly  8,000,000  people. 

The  influence  of  this  vast  ecclesiastical  force  on 

*  As  reported  in  1860,  in  Schem's  Ecclesiastical  Tear  Book;  our 
best  authority  in  American  ecclesiastical  statistics. 

•J-  The  other  North  American  British  Provinces  are  not  included,  as 
their  Methodism  did  not  originate  with  the  denomination  in  the  United 
States.  The  Primitive  Methodists  are  also  omitted. 


SUMMARY  VIEW.  217 

the  moral,  intellectual,  and  social  progress  of  the 
New  World,  can  neither  be  doubted  nor  measured. 
It  is  generally  conceded  that  it  has  been  the  most 
energetic  religious  element  in  the  social  development 
cf  the  continent.  With  its  devoted  and  enterprising 
people  dispersed  through  the  whole  population,  its 
thousands  of  laborious  itinerant  preachers,  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  local  preachers  and  exhorters,  its 
unequaled  publishing  agencies  and  powerful  period 
icals,  from  the  Quarterly  Review  to  the  child's 
paper,  its  hundreds  of  colleges  and  academies,  its 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Sunday-school  instructors, 
its  devotion  to  the  lower  and  most  needy  classes,  its 
animated  modes  of  worship  and  religious  labor,  it 
cannot  be  questioned  that  it  has  been  a  mighty,  if 
not  the  mightiest  agent  in  the  maintenance  and 
spread  of  Protestant  Christianity  over  these  lands. 
It  stands  now  on  the  threshold  of  its  second  century 
mightier  than  ever,  in  all  the  elements  and  resources 
requisite  for  a  still  greater  history.  It  has  modified 
somewhat  its  primitive  methods,  but  only  for  its 
increased  efficiency. 

The  question,  What  is  the  actual  position,  moral 
as  well  as  statistical,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  particular?  cannot  be  more  authorita 
tively  answered  than  in  the  address  of  its  latest 
delegate  to  the  British  Conference,  Bishop  Janes. 
"  In  this  epoch  of  her  history,"  he  says,  "  the  ques- 


218        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

tion  naturally  arises,  'What  has  been  the  career 
of  American  Methodism,  what  its  attainments  of 
power  and  usefulness  in  the-land  and  in  the  world?' 
As  a  partial  answer  to  this  inquiry,  we  refer  you 
to  our  latest  tables  of  statistics:*  Communicants, 
928,320 ;  itinerant  ministers,  6,821 ;  local  ministers, 
8,205;  churches,  10,015;  parsonages,  2,948;  estima 
ted  value  of  churches  and  parsonages,  $26,883,076 ; 
Sunday-schools,  13,153  ;  officers  and  teachers, 
148,475 ;  scholars,  859,700.  We  have  161  mission 
aries  in  foreign  lands,  and  7,022  church  members. 
Among  the  foreign  populations  of  our  own  country, 
we  have  laboring  286  missionaries ;  and  in  the 
churches  under  their  care,  26,138  communicants. 
In  our  domestic  missionary  department  we  have 
about  800  missionaries ;  their  statistics  are  given  in 
the  general  aggregate  I  have  stated.  Some  of  these 
missionaries  are  supported  wholly  by  the  missionary 
fund,  but  most  of  them  only  in  part.  Receipts, 
$558,993 ;  the  appropriations  for  the  current  year 
are  $625,000.  With,  regard  to  our  education,  we 
have  23  universities  or  colleges,  in  which  there  are 
5,345  students,  with  property  and  endowment  funds 
amounting  to  more  than  $2,800,000.  We  have 
two  theological  schools,  in  which  there  are  116 

*  The  statistics,  given  elsewhere  in  this  volume,  are  the  latest  I  have 
been  able  to  obtain;  a  difference  of  time  will  account  for  any  differ 
ence  of  figures  between  the  bishop's  statements  and  my  own. 


SUMMARY  VIEW.  219 

students,  with  property  valued  at  $150,000.*  We 
have  77  academic  institutions,  with  about  18,000 
students,  the  number  of  males  and  females  being 
about  equal.  Our  use  of  the  press  has  been  contin 
ually  increasing.  "We  have  now  nine  weekly  and 
several  semi-monthly,  monthly,  and  quarterly  peri 
odicals,  which  are  official,  and  several  unofficial 
periodicals  which  are  Methodistic  in  their  character. 
We  still  follow  the  example  of  Mr.  Wesley  in  zeal 
ously  circulating  Christian  books.  We  have  a  very 
large  number  of  Sunday-school  publications,  and  a 
religious  literature  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
whole  Church.  These  statistics  only  answer  the 
question  partially.  There  have  been  several  large 
secessions  from  the  Church,  which  have  continued 
to  preach  our  doctrines  and  observe  most  of  our 
usages.  I  have  not  been  permitted  to  examine  the 
'Book  of  Life'  to  ascertain  the  great  number  who 
shared  her  militant  fellowship  on  earth,  but  now 
enjoy  the  divine  fruition  of  the  Church  triumphant 
in  heaven.  Could  I  obtain  the  number  of  those,  liv 
ing  and  dead,  who  have  been  enrolled  in  the  annals 
of  American  Methodism,  even  that  would  not  give 
the  full  measure  of  its  usefulness.  Its  influence, 
subtle  as  the  fragrance  of  the  flower,  could  not  be 
registered  by  man.  '  As  the  dew  of  Hermon,  and 
the  dew  that  descended  upon  the  mountain  when 
*  This  does  not  include  the  legacy  of  the  late  Mrs.  Garrett. 


220        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

the  Lord  commanded  the  blessing,'  the  influence  of 
American  Methodism  has  descended  upon  the  whole 
land,  permeating  more  or  less  all  denominations  of 
Christians,  and  germinating  and  maturing  many 
rich  fruits,  which  have  been  garnered  in  other 
Churches  and  recorded  in  other  registers.  It  is, 
perhaps,  a  most  important  question  for  us  to  answer 
whether  the  American  Methodism  of  1865  is  the 
Methodism  introduced  in  1766.  Notwithstanding 
all  that  croakers  and  grumblers  have  said  or  can 
say  on  this  subject,  a  careful  examination  will  show 
that  if  it  does  not  strictly  retain  the  resemblance  of 
the  impression  to  the  signet,  it  does  bear  the  iden 
tity  of  manhood  to  childhood,  of  the  harvest  to  the 
seed.  Changes  have  been  made  in  the  i  Rules  and 
Regulations'  from  time  to  time,  by  legitimate 
authority,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  Church  have 
required.  It  is  exceedingly  interesting  to  see  how 
these  changes  have  been  made  in  the  direction  of 
development,  of  enlargement,  and  of  progress. 

u  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  organized 
by  authority  of  Mr.  Wesley,  in  1784,  by  Dr.  Coke. 
The  liturgy  which  Mr.  Wesley  provided  for  the 
Church  contained  the  forms  of  making  and  ordain 
ing  superintendents  or  bishops,  and  elders  or  pres 
byters,  and  deacons.  The  discipline  he  gave  the 
Church  provided  for  employment  of  unordained 
ministers  and  local  preachers  to  assist  the  pastors 


SUMMARY  VIEW.  221 

in  their  pulpit  labors,  and  class-leaders  to  aid  them 
in  their  pastoral  work.  These  are  the  orders  and 
duties  of  our  ministers  and  pastors  at  this  present 
time.  The  number  of  ministers  soon  became  so 
large,  and  their  distance  from  each  other  so  great, 
that  it  was  found  impossible  for  them  to  meet  in  one 
conference.  Two  conferences  were  then  formed. 
As  these  became  inconveniently  large,  they  were 
again  divided ;  and  this  process  has  been  continued, 
until  now,  including  our  conferences  in  Africa  and 
Germany,  and  India,  we  have  sixty  Annual  Confer 
ences.  For  the  same  reason,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  provide  for  a  delegated  General  Conference,  to 
meet  quadrennially,  with  authority,  under  certain 
specified  restrictions,  'to  make  rules  and  regula 
tions'  for  the  Church,  to  review  the  administration 
of  the  Annual  Conference,  and  to  elect  and  ordain 
bishops  whenever  the  state  of  the  work  required  it. 
We  have  also  a  Quarterly  Conference,  composed  of 
the  preachers  of  the  circuit,  the  local  preachers, 
stewards,  trustees,  class-leaders,  exhorters,  and  Sun 
day-school  superintendents.  This  conference  has  a 
general  but  prescribed  supervision  of  all  the  inter 
ests  of  the  circuit.  The  few  simple  rules  which  Mr. 
"Wesley  provided  for  removing  improper  persons 
from  society  and  improper  ministers  from  the  con 
ference  have  been  elaborated  into  a  complete  system 
of  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence.  We  maintain,  unim- 


222        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

paired,  the  itinerancy  of  our  ministry.  In  the  older 
and  more  densely  populated  portions  of  the  country, 
the  work  is  divided  into  stations  or  separate  pas 
toral  charges.  In  the  newer  and  more  sparsely 
peopled  sections  we  retain  the  circuit  form.  The 
late  General  Conference  extended  the  term  of  min 
isterial  service  so  as  to  allow  a  minister  to  remain 
three  years  in  the  same  charge.  The  Episcopacy 
constitutes  an  '  Itinerant  General  Superintendency.' 
There  is  no  feature  of  our  polity  of  which  both  the 
ministers  and  laity  of  the  Church  are  more  jealous. 
The  attachment  to  it  is  universal.  Attendance 
upon  class-meeting  has  not  been  uniformly  enforced 
as  a  condition  of  Church  membership.  The  duty 
of  attendance  upon  this  social  means  of  grace  has 
been  strongly  urged  upon  all  our  members.  Many 
of  the  pastors  have  laid  aside  for  a  breach  of  our 
rules  such  members  as  were  delinquents  in  this 
respect.  The  institution  is  very  highly  appreciated 
by  the  spiritual  and  devout  portion  of  the  Church. 
It  is  invaluable  in  training  our  converts.  Our 
leaders,  taken  as  a  body,  make  a  sub-pastorate,  a 
lay  agency  which  is  unequaled.  The  local  preachers 
and  class-leaders  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
constitute  one  of  the  grand  forces  of  American 
Methodism. 

"  Does  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  retain  its 
simplicity  and   spirituality?    Is  it  being  built  up 


SUMMAKY  VIEW.  223 

with  living  stones  ?  Is  it  a  spiritual  house,  a  holy 
priesthood,  offering  up  spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable 
to  God  through  Jesus  Christ.  "We  cannot  search 
the  hearts  or  discern  the  spirits  of  our  brethren. 
We  can  only  judge  from  outward  signs,  and  even 
thus  with  great  carefulness.  Most  of  our  members 
bring  forth  the  fruits  of  good  living.  They  testify 
in  class-meetings  and  love-feasts,  and  on  other  suit 
able  occasions,  to  their  enjoyment  of  God's  pardon 
ing  mercy  and  adopting  love,  many  of  them  of  his 
sanctifying  power.  Our  people  almost  uniformly 
prefer  spiritual  scriptural  preaching.  "We  are 
favored  with  frequent  and  extensive  revivals ;  and 
we  can  and  do  feel  and  "say,  'the  best  of  all  is,  God 
is  with  us.'  As  to  the  future,  our  success  is  likely 
to  be  greater  than  ever." 


PART  III. 

ITS    CAPABILITIES    AND    RESPONSIBILITIES 
FOR  THE  FUTURE. 

THE  capabilities  of  American  Methodism,  for  con- 
tinned  and  increased  usefulness,  have  already  been 
shown  in  the  historical  view  of  its  practical  methods, 
its  theological  teachings,  and  its  actual  results.  It 
stands  strong  to-day  in  its  essential  doctrines  and 
methods;  and  it  has  the  additional  ability  and 
responsibility  of  greater  financial  resources  than  it 
has  ever  had  before.  Its  people,  originally  the 
poorest  of  the  land,  have  become,  under  its  benef 
icent  training,  perhaps  the  wealthiest.  Not  only 
has  it  more  diffused  wealth  than  any  sister  denomina 
tion,  but  its  cases  of  individual  opulence  have,  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  greatly  multiplied. 
As  the  leading  Church  of  the  country,  it  bears,  before 
God  and  man,  the  chief  responsibility  of  the  moral 
welfare  of  the  nation.  The  better  consecration  of  its 
wealth  to  the  public  good  is  therefore  one  of  the  prin 
cipal  responsibilities  of  its  future. 

We  have  seen  how  providentially  it  met  the  moral 

exigencies  which  grew  out  of  the  early  rapid  growth 

15 


226        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

of  the  American  population;  exigencies  that  could 
not  otherwise  have  been  met.  But  a  greater  de 
mand,  if  possible,  is  to  be  made  upon  it  in  the 
future.  This  wonderful  growth  of  population  is 
to  advance  at  a  rate  which  threatens  to  outstrip 
the  provisions  for  its  intellectual  and  religious 
training.  In  less  than  forty  years  from  the  present 
date  more  than  one  hundred  millions  of  human 
souls  will  be  dependent  upon  these  provisions  for 
their  intellectual  and  moral  nutriment.  They  bear 
now  no  adequate  relation  to  the  real  necessities 
of  the  land.  If,  after  more  than  two  centuries  of 
religious  and  educational  efforts,  under  the  most 
auspicious  circumstances  of  the  country,  we  have 
but  partially  provided  for  thirty-five  millions,  how 
shall  we,  in  forty  years,  meet  the  immensely 
enlarged  moral  wants  of  nearly  three  times  that 
number?  The  question  is  a  very  grave  one.  Our 
rapid  growth,  so  much  the  boast  of  the  nation,  is 
not  without  imminent  peril ;  it  may  be  too  rapid  to 
be  healthful ;  it  is  to  be  the  severest  test  of  both 
our  religion  and  our  liberties,  for  one  is  the  essen 
tial  condition  of  the  other.  And  yet  it  cannot,  by 
any  probable  contingencies,  be  restrained.  It  has  a 
momentum  which  will  bear  down  and  overleap  all 
the  ordinary  obstructions  of  population.  We  can 
not  want  work,  we  cannot  want  bread ;  and  where 
these  exist,  population  must  advance  as  inevitably 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE   FUTURE.  227 

as  the  waters  under  the  laws  of  the  tide.  Every 
growth  of  this  population  provides  indeed  some 
what,  morally  as  well  as  materially,  for  the  next 
growth ;  but  the  law  of  proportion  must  fail  in  this 
respect,  under  our  rapid  advance  and  the  peculiar 
elements  of  our  growth,  unless  the  religious  bodies 
of  the  land,  to  which  its  education  is  so  largely 
confided,  make  special  provisions  for  it. 

"When  we  remind  ourselves  that  so  much  of  this 
popular  increase  is  from  abroad,  that  Europe  has 
been  in  an  "exodus"  toward  our  shores,  that  its 
ignorance  and  vice — wave  overtopping  wave — roll 
in  upon  the  land,  the  danger  assumes  a  startling 
aspect.  In  about  thirty-six  years  from  this  day  our 
population  will  equal  the  present  aggregate  popu 
lation  of  England,  France,  Switzerland,  Spain,  Por 
tugal,  Sweden,  and  Denmark.  A  step  further  in  the 
calculation  presents  a  prospect  still  more  surprising 
and  impressive:  in  about  sixty-six  years  from  to 
day  this  mighty  mass  of  commingled  peoples  will 
have  swollen  to  the  stupendous  aggregate  of  two 
hundred  and  forty-six  millions — equaling  the  present 
population  of  all  Europe.  According  to  the  statis 
tics  of  life,  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our 
present  population  who  will  witness  this  truly  grand 
result.  What  have  the  friends  of  education  and 
religion  to  do  within  that  time!  If  our  present 
intellectual  and  moral  provisions  for  the  people  are 


228        CENTENARY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

far  short  of  the  wants  of  our  present  thirty-five 
millions,  how  in  sixty-six  years  shall  we  provide 
for  more  than  two  hundred  and  eleven  additional 
millions,  and  these  millions,  to  a  great  extent,  com 
posed  of  semi-barbarous  foreigners  and  their  mis- 
trained  children? 

We  may  well  ponder  these  facts,  and  feel  that 
on  us,  the  citizens  of  the  republic,  at  this  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  devolves  a  moral 
exigency  such  as,  perhaps,  no  other  land  ever  saw ; 
an  exigency  as  full  of  sublimity  as  of  urgency — 
as  grand  in  its  opportunity  as  in  its  peril.  This 
immense  prospective  population — certain,  though 
prospective — is  to  be  thrown  out,  by  the  almighty 
hand  of  Providence,  upon  one  of  the  grandest 
arenas  of  the  world.  Here,  on  this  large  continent, 
bounded  in  its  distant  independence  by  the  Atlantic, 
the  Pacific,  the  great  tropic  gulf,  and  the  Arctic; 
here,  away  from  the  traditional  governments  and 
faiths  and  other  antiquated  checks  of  the  old  world, 
it  is  to  play  its  great  drama  of  destiny — a  destiny 
which,  as  we  have  shown,  must,  numerically  at 
least,  be  in  less  than  seventy  years  as  potential  as 
all  present  Europe,  and  how  much  more  potential 
in  all  moral,  political,  and  commercial  respects  ? 
What  an  idea  would  it  be,  that  of  all  Europe  consol 
idated  into  one  mighty,  untrammeled  common 
wealth,  in  the  highest  liberty,  religious  enlighten- 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOB  THE   FUTURE.  229 

nent,  and  industrial  development — and  this  mighty 
revolution  to  be  completed  in  less  than  seventy 
years  from  to-day?  Who  would  credit  the  concep 
tion?  Yet  our  republic  will,  in  that  time,  more 
than  realize  the  stupendous  idea,  if  its  political  and 
moral  integrity  be  not  sacrificed. 

Look  at  its  field.  According  to  an  official  report, 
the  total  area  of  the  United  States  and  territories 
in  1853  was  2,983,153  square  miles.  This  estimate 
is  found  to  be  even  short  of  the  truth :  various 
official  reports  from  the  Land  Office,  and  the  aggre 
gate  of  the  census,  show  3,220,572  square  miles.  It 
is  estimated  from  these  facts  that  the  territorial  ex 
tent  of  the  republic  is  nearly  ten  times  as  large  as 
that  of  Great  Britain  and  France  united,  three  times 
as  large  as  the  whole  of  Britain,  France,  Austria, 
Prussia,  Spain,  Portugal,  Belgium,  Holland,  and 
Denmark ;  one  and  a  half  times  as  large  as  the 
Russian  empire  in  Europe ;  only  a  sixth  less  than 
the  area  covered  by  the  nearly  sixty  empires, 
states,  or  republics  of  Europe;  of  larger  extent 
than  the  Roman  empire,  or  that  of  Alexander, 
neither  of  which  exceeded  three  millions  of  square 
miles.  What  a  theater  is  this  for  the  achievements 
of  civilization  and  religion !  Surely  there  should 
be  "  giants  in  these  days  "  to  enact  worthily  the  en 
terprises  of  such  a  field.  And  if  circumstances  make 
men,  are  we  not  to  hope  that  the  consciousnesa 


230        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

of  this  unparalleled  destiny  will  enlarge  and  ennoble 
the  intellect,  the  philanthropy,  and  moral  energy  of 
the  country  to  a  scale  of  corresponding  magnificence — 
will  bring  forth  sublime  examples  of  public  devotion, 
of  talent,  of  moral  heroism,  and  of  munificence  ?  Let 
it  be  repeated  that  Methodism,  by  its  numerical 
strength  and  wealth,  has  a  larger  responsibility  for 
this  great  field  than  any  other  Church  of  the  land. 

American  Methodism,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been 
remarkable  for  the  progress  of  its  Educational  pro 
visions  •  and  this  fact  may  be  considered  one  of  its 
providential  adaptations  to  its  great  mission  in  the 
"New  World.  Wisely  has  its  General  Conference 
"  Centenary  Committee "  proposed  to  commemo 
rate  its  centenary  jubilee,  not  so  much  by  a 
monumental  edifice  as  by  a  monumental  institu 
tion — a  permanent  fund  for  education.  An  im 
pressive  argument  for  education  is  found  in  the 
large  proportion  of  our  juvenile  population.  Where 
there  is  plenty  of  food,  as  there  must  indefinitely 
be  in  this  country,  there  will  always  be  plenty 
of  children.  It  is  a  beneficent,  a  beautiful  law. 
Nearly  half  our  present  white  population  are  yet 
in  what  may  be  called  the  flower  of  youth.  We 
almost  literally  present  an  example  of  national  ado 
lescence — the  freshness,  the  ardor,  the  vigor,  and 
the  susceptibility  of  childhood  and  young  manhood. 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE   FUTURE.  231 

Our  white  population  in  1860  was  26,957,471; 
the  portion  which  was  under  twenty  years  of  age, 
12,614,637.  The  destiny  of  the  country  is  then  in 
the  hands  of  its  educators.  The  population  of  to-day 
is  to  surpass  all  the  millions  of  Europe  in  less 
than  seventy  years ;  and  its  educators  hold  within 
their  power  nearly  one  half  of  the  population  of 
to-day,  nearly  one  half  the  present  elements  of  the 
grand  geometrical  progression.  Let  them  work  out, 
then,  with  an  untiring  hand  and  a  sublime  conscious 
ness,  this  mighty  arithmetic  of  destiny  !  It  may  be 
soberly  said  that  never  before  was  there  a  battle 
field  for  humanity  like  this  ;  never  were  the  elements 
of  good  and  evil  set  forth  against  each  other  in  a 
grander  arena ;  never  was  humanity  thrown  out 
upon  conditions  more  experimental,  more  free  from 
the  trammels  of  old  institutions,  of  old  traditions, 
of  old  fallacies.  It  must  be  mighty  here — that  is 
inevitable ;  but  it  will  be  mighty  in  the  strength 
of  its  wickedness,  like  the  antediluvian  giants  who 
brought  the  world  to  dissolution,  or  mighty  in 
the  virtues  which  shall  subdue  the  world  to  the 
reign  of  religion,  intelligence,  and  liberty.  They 
who  have  the  means  of  educating  the  young  can 
lay  a  mightier  hand  upon  this  sublime  future  than 
any  other  heroes  in  the  field.  The  legislators  of 
the  land,  its  high  places  of  power,  and  of  profes 
sional  life,  may  do  much  for  it ;  but  its  humble  places 


232        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

of  education,  including  its  Sunday -schools,  are  its  true 
fortresses — "  the  cheap  defense  of  the  nation." 

It  is  to  be  hoped,  therefore,  that  Methodism,  with 
its  chief  responsibility  for  the  moral  and  intellectual 
progress  of  the  country,  will  prosecute  more  vigor 
ously  than  ever  its  educational  work,  and  that  it 
will  especially  crown  its  present  jubilee  by  endow 
ing,  in  accordance  with  the  plan  of  its  Centenary 
Committee,  a  monumental  fund  for  education,  which 
shall  worthily  commemorate  the  great  occasion,  and 
from  which  not  only  its  present  numerous  colleges 
shall  receive  additional  strength,  but  new  ones  shall 
spring  up  as  the  population  of  the  country  advances. 

It  should  especially  enlarge  its  means  of  minis 
terial  education.  It  has  done  a  great  work  in  the 
mere  conquest  (now  universal)  of  the  popular  preju 
dice  against  theological  schools.  It  has  provided, 
as  we  have  seen,  two  such  institutions,  one  in  the 
north-east  and  one  in  the  north-west ;  it  needs  at 
least  three  more  immediately:  one  in  the  middle 
East,  one  in  the  middle  West,  and  one  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  It  should  have  them,  at  latest,  within  five 
years,  and  its  proposed  Centenary  fund  will  probably 
enable  it  to  provide  them  even  earlier.*  Ministerial 

*  Daniel  Drew,  Esq.,  has  already  pledged  $250,000  for  a  theologi 
cal  school  near  New  York  City,  the  first  centenary  donation  to  the 
Church,  and  one  worthy  of  the  occasion. 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE  FUTURE.  233 

education  is  evidently  one  of  its  greatest  necessities 
for  the  future ;  it  is  not  only  necessary  for  its  prog 
ress,  but  for  the  safety  of  the  great  conquests  it  has 
already  won.  Its  people  are  rapidly  advancing  in 
intelligence ;  their  demand  for  improved  pulpit  in 
struction  cannot  be  waived  ;  it  must  be  met,  or 
their  families  be  lost  from  the  denomination.  The 
Church  has  become  conscious  of  this  necessity,  and 
will  not,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  delay  to  provide  abund 
antly  for  it. 

Methodism  should  feel  itself  responsible  to  min 
ister  hereafter,  more  than  heretofore,  to  the  public 
culture,  l}y  the  improvement  of  its  church  archi 
tecture.  During  most  of  its  history,  it  has  had  to 
extemporize  its  temples.  Within  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  it  has  been  providentially  enabled  to 
renew  a  large  proportion  of  them,  to  give  them 
better  locations,  better  internal  accommodations, 
and  better  architectural  style ;  so  that  in  some  of 
the  principal  cities,  Boston,  New  York,  Newark, 
Philadelphia,  Wilmington,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  its 
places  of  worship  are  rapidly  taking  rank  with 
those  of  older  denominations.  It  has  need,  indeed, 
of  caution  against  excess  in  this  respect,  but  it  has 
more  need  of  liberal  taste  than  of  caution,  for  its 
error  has  been  in  the  opposite  direction,  if  not  in 
the  opposite  extreme.  It  should  bear  in  mind  that 


234:        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

its  permanent  hold  upon  its  congregations,  especially 
in  the  larger  communities,  will  depend  much  upon 
the  convenience  and  even  the  elegance  (the  just 
elegance)  of  its  churches;  that  there  can  be  no 
moral  objection  to  good  taste  and  genuine  art; 
and  that  the  monuments  of  religion  deserve  such 
tributes  above  all  other  structures.  The  taste  of  the 
Church  has  advanced  much  in  this  respect,  more, 
perhaps,  than  its  liberality,  but  it  needs  further 
training  in  both.  It  needs  to  be  reminded  that  true 
taste  and  true  art  are  not  adventitious  things,  much 
less  the  products  of  pride  or  luxury ;  that  they  are 
founded  in  original  laws,  that  is  to  say,  divine  laws 
of  human  nature,  and  therefore  meet  a  natural  want 
of  man;  that  even  the  strictest  "  utilitarianism " 
cannot  rationally  condemn  them,  for  beauty  is  often 
the  highest  utility,  ministering,  in  art,  to  our  higher 
wants  in  a  manner  incomparably  more  utilitarian, 
than  the  service  of  the  lower  or  "  practical  arts  "  to 
our  lower  nature.  God  has  written  its  vindication 
over  all  his  works,  for  whatever  may  be  their  mechan 
ical  processes  and  directly  utilitarian  designs,  he  has 
decorated  them  everywhere  with  beauty  or  sublim 
ity,  and  their  very  first  appeal  is  to  our  minds  rather 
than  to  our  physical  necessities.  The  heavens  by 
day  and  by  night,  the  mountains  and  valleys,  the 
streams  and  seas,  and  most  living  things,  are  made 
by  him  pictures  for  the  soul  before  they  can  be  made 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOB  THE  FUTURE.  235 

by  us  tributary  to  our  material  wants.  He  permits 
not  the  vegetable  world  to  yield  us  bread,  till  it  bas 
first  yielded  beauty  through  the  eye,  to  the  mind. 
The  blossom  precedes  the  fruit.  True  art  should 
be  recognized  as  one  of  the  noblest  handmaids  of 
religion ;  elevating  impressions  and  associations, 
through  the  senses  in  our  temples,  may  ennoble 
even  divine  worship ;  and  imposing  monuments  of 
taste,  consecrated  to  piety,  are  among  the  highest 
means  of  national  culture,  and  the  highest  proofs  of 
advanced  civilization.  It  is  a  sacred  peculiarity  of 
architectural  art  that,  unlike  painting  and  sculpture, 
it  will  not  lend  itself  to  vice ;  its  severe  and  stately 
beauty  disdains  effeminate  or  voluptuous  tastes.  It 
is  the  most  sublime,  the  most  religious,  of  the  works 
of  man. 

On  really  utilitarian  grounds,  then,  may  we  plead 
for  religious  art.  Yet  we  may  plead  for  it  also  on 
really  economical  grounds.  The  most  expensive 
temple  is  usually  the  most  economical.  The  Church 
that  builds  its  edifice  in  the  most  eligible  locality 
and  in  the  most  attractive  style,  almost  invariably 
finds  its  expense  the  best  reimbursed,  by  its  command 
of  the  people,  their  attendance,  their  intelligence, 
and  their  money.  A  well  located,  substantial,  and 
commanding  temple  aids  much  in  giving  security  to 
a  Church,  and  is  cheap  in  this  respect.  The  stability 
of  the  religions  of  the  old  world,  their  power  over 


236        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

local  populations,  are  owing  largely  to  their  grand 
edifices.  Methodism  should  not  despise  this  power. 
It  must  still  throw  up  hastily,  especially  in  its  frontier 
fields,  temporary  "  meeting-houses,"  shanties,  or  log- 
cabins  ;  it  should  multiply  greatly  its  cheap  suburban 
temples;  but  it  should  make  all  prudent  haste  to 
supersede  these  by  better  structures.  Consulting 
always,  and  primarily,  practical  convenience  in  its 
buildings,  it  should  also  endeavor  liberally  to  ennoble 
the  house  of  God  by  every  aid  of  genuine  taste  and 
art.  It  will  not  be  able  to  justify  itself  against  the 
claims  of  public  opinion  and  public  taste  upon  it  if, 
with  its  great  prosperity,  it  should  fail  to  have  within 
the  next  twenty-five  years  the  most  approved  and 
most  commodious  churches  of  the  nation. 

It  should  be  one  of  its  most  earnest  aims  to  con 
solidate  its  forces  by  the  union  of  its  various  Amer 
ican  branches.  There  would  seem  to  be  but  tempo 
rary,  if  indeed  any  reason,  for  the  continued  separa 
tion  of  its  two  chief  bodies,  north  and  south.  They 
divided  on  the  question  of  slavery;  that  question  is 
now  practically  obsolete;  they  are  identical  in  their 
theological  and  practical  systems  and  in  their  ecclesi 
astical  aims  ;  their  reunion  would  contribute  much  to 
the  social  and  political  reconciliation  of  the  North 
and  South ;  it  is  a  duty,  therefore,  that  they  both 
owe  to  their  common  country,  and  to  our  common 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE   FUTURE.  227 

Christianity.  On  what  terms  such  a  reconciliation 
should  be  founded,  need  not  here  be  discussed ;  it  is 
sufficient  to  affirm  the  obvious  fact  that  it  should  be 
effected,  and  whatever  is  obviously  right  is  always, 
sooner  or  later,  practicable.  The  other  branches  of 
American  Methodism  have  arisen  mostly  by  seces 
sions,  founded  on  questions  of  church  government, 
especially  on  the  demand  for  lay  representation.  The 
position  of  the  supreme  assembly  of  the  Church  on 
this  subject,  its  readiness  at  the  will  of  the  Church 
to  make  the  change,  should  make  it  possible  for 
such  sister  bodies  to  return  to  the  common  household. 
Such  a  consolidation  of  the  various  communions 
which  bear  the  name  of  Methodists  and  have 
identical  doctrines  and  discipline,  would  mightily 
strengthen,  numerically  and  morally,  the  common 
cause.  Perhaps  a  still  greater  advantage  would  be 
the  diminution  of  the  prevalent  sectarianism  of  the 
country,  and  the  consequent  abatement  of  its  rancor, 
its  wastefulness,  and  its  bad  moral  effect  on  the 
public  mind.  "Whatever  may  be  the  advantage  of  a 
variety  of  religious  denominations,  for  the  accommo 
dation  of  a  variety  of  religious  opinions  or  scruples, 
(an  advantage  enormously  exaggerated  in  this  coun 
try,)  it  surely  cannot  justify  those  distinctions,  with 
out  an  essential  difference,  which  the  various  sects  of 
Methodism  now  present.  If  American  Christianity 
must  needs  have  divisions,  it  certainly  need  not  have 


238        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

these  subdivisions.  Wesley  gloried,  as  we  have  seen, 
in  the  liberality,  the  catholicity  of  Methodism ;  it  is 
a  boast  which  his  disciples  should  be  eager  to  main 
tain  throughout  the  world  and  to  the  end  of  time. 
"What  a  crowning  glory  would  it  be  to  its  cente 
nary  jubilee,  if  all  its  now  practically  unnecessary 
branches  could  be  blended  into  one  common  cause 
before  the  joyous  year  (never  to  be  enjoyed  on  earth 
by  any  of  us  again)  has  passed  away!  If  this  be 
impossible,  can  we  not,  at  least,  in  the  proceedings 
of  this  memorable  year,  lay  with  certainty  the 
foundations  of  so  grand  a  consummation  ? 

Methodism  should  earnestly  seeJc  to  solve  that  now 
most  important  of  its  practical  problems,  how  to  se 
cure  its  children  within  its  own  pale.  Its  Sunday- 
schools  help  it  much  in  this  respect,  but  not  suffi 
ciently.  Thousands  of  its  youth  have  been  annually 
converted  within  these  schools:  nearly  19,000  the 
last  year,  (1864,)  nearly  40,000  within  the  last  two 
years;  more  than  285,000  within  the  last  eighteen 
years.  In  several  of  these  years  the  reported  conver 
sions  in  the  schools  equaled  half  the  annual  additions 
to  the  Church  membership;  in  several  the  former 
more  than  equaled  the  whole  of  the  latter.  In  the 
entire  period  the  Sunday-school  conversions  have  sur 
passed  the  entire  gains  of  the  Church  membership  by 
nearly  5,000.  During  thrqp  years  of  the  war  the 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE  FUTURE. 


239 


membership  decreased  67,000,  but  during  these  same 
three  years  the  reported  conversions  in  the  schools 
amounted  to  50,500.  While  these  facts  speak  emphat 
ically  for  the  religious  power  of  the  school,  they  show 
alarmingly  the  inefficient  guardianship  of  the  Church 
over  its  children.  They  prove  that  most  of  its  con 
verted  youth  either  fail  to  enter  or  are  lost  from  its 
communion.  The  startling  exhibit  of  these  statistics 
should  be  kept  under  the  eye  of  the  Church,*  and 
be  anxiously  pondered  till  a  remedy  be  found  for  the 
extraordinary  evil.  The  last  General  Conference 
ordained  that  the  "  baptized  children  of  the  Church  " 
shall  be  "  organized  into  classes,"  with  suitable  lead 
ers,  (male  or  female,)  and  in  due  time  be  "  enrolled 
on  the  list  of  probationers  "  and  "  admitted  into  full 
membership."  This  is  an  important  advance  in  the 
right  direction  ;  but  it  must  fail  without  the  diligent 
pastoral  attention  of  the  ministry.  The  intimate 
co-operation  of  the  pastor  with  his  Sunday-school 
teachers ;  his  presence  in  the  school,  especially  in 


Total 

Increase  of 

Total 

Increase  of 

*  Tear. 

conversions. 

Ch.  Membership. 

Year. 

conversions. 

Ch.  Membership. 

1847 

4,118 

Dec. 

1857 

14,669 

20,192 

1848 

8,240 

7,508 

1858 

32,315 

136,036 

1849 

9,014 

23,249 

1859 

20,580 

17,790 

1850 

11,398 

27,367 

I860 

19,517 

20,102 

1851 

14,557 

32,122 

1861 

17,498 

dec.    1,924 

1852 

13,243 

6,896 

1862 

12,838 

dec.  45,  61  7 

1853 

16,916 

3,937 

1863 

20,233 

dec.  19,512 

1854 

17,494 

30,732 

1864 

18,892 

4,926 

1855 

17,443 

16,073 

1856 

16,775 

896 

285,730 

280,773 

240        CENTENARY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

times  of  religious  interest;  liis  habitual  personal 
care  of  converted  scholars  until  they  shall  be  fully 
incorporated  and  confirmed  in  the  Church,  and  his 
continual  endeavors  to  interest  them  in  their  relig 
ious  duties,  are  indispensable  means  of  their  safety. 
He  should  behold  in  the  Sunday-school  the  Church, 
of  the  future.  There  more  than  anywhere  else 
should  we  exert  our  utmost  strength,  for  thence  chief 
ly  are  we  to  reinforce  our  hosts  for  all  coming  battles 
and  victories.  The  great  number  of  reported  con 
versions  in  our  schools,  probably  exceeding  that  of 
any  other,  if  not  indeed  of  all  other  American 
Churches  combined,  should  thrill  the  denomination 
with  interest,  should  convince  it  that  here  it  has  a 
field  of  immeasurable  resources,  and  that  I  have  not 
wrongly  called  the  question  of  the  Church  relation  of 
its  children  its  greatest  practical  problem. 

Finally,  and  above  all  things,  Methodism  should 
~be  reminded  of  its  responsibility  to  maintain  vital, 
apostolic  piety  in  the  land,  and  to  spread  it  over  the 
world.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  was  its  original 
mission  ;  this  its  historical  stand-point ;  from  this 
has  sprung  all  its  surprising  achievements;  if  this 
ceases  the  ligjit  will  go  out  in  all  its  sanctuaries. 
Its  spiritual  life  has,  let  it  be  repeated,  preserved  its 
doctrinal  integrity  and  its  practical  vigor  through 
these  hundred  years.  It  has  never  had,  at  least  in 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE   FUTURE.  241 

America,  a  serious  outbreak  of  theological  heresy. 
Seldom  has  it  had  even  an  individual  judicial  case 
of  heterodoxy.  Such  causes  of  faction  and  division 
have  been  almost  unknown  to  it.  Its  piety  has 
kept  it  orthodox,  notwithstanding  the  extraordinary 
liberality  of  its  terms  of  membership.  Doubtless  its 
peculiar  methods  have  been  the  proximate  cause  of 
its  great  success,  but  what  would  these  methods  have 
been  without  the  spiritual  energy  which  has  worked 
them  ?  That  energy  has  been  divine,  but  the  energy 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  itself  works  by  the  truth ;  the 
doctrines  of  Methodism  have  therefore  been  its  vital 
element.  Repentance,  faith,  personal  regeneration, 
the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  sanctification,  these  have 
been  the  living  ideas  of  Methodist  teaching  through 
out  the  world.  It  retains  these  vital  truths  to-day 
unimpaired ;  let  it  continue  to  guard  them  sacredly, 
as  the  very  fire  on  its  altars.  Let  it  incessantly 
expound  and  enforce  them  in  all  its  sanctuaries,  and 
these  sanctuaries  shall  continue  to  be  thronged  with 
inquiring,  awakened,  and  living  souls. 

Reviewing  thus  with  grateful  joy  the  blessings  of 
God  to  us  and  our  families  through  his  Church, 
and  reminding  ourselves,  with  devout  self-admoni 
tion,  of  our  responsibility  for  the  future,  it  is  befitting 
that  we  should  erect,  not  in  stone,  but  in  more 
enduring  substance,  a  monument,  the  light  on  whose 
summit  shall  shine  with  ever  increasing  glory  dur- 

16 


242        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

ing  the  coming  hundred  years,  and  shall  be  witnessed 
by  the  eyes  of  our  posterity,  when  on  the  anniversary 
morning  of  October,  1966,  they  shall  throng  in  re 
doubled  hosts  to  their  temples,  and  respond  back  over 
our  graves,  to  this  anniversary  epoch,  and  send  for 
ward  to  the  next  the  anthems  of  our  jubilee.  God 
grant  that  the  hymns  of  that  morning  may  resound 
not  only  over  this,  but  over  both  American  conti 
nents,  from  Labrador  to  Terra  del  Fuego,  and  that  tho 
missions  of  Methodism  may  respond  to  them  from 
all  the  ends  of  the  earth  !  Our  chief  memorial  of  the 
epoch,  as  has  been  stated,  is  not  to  be  a  building  but 
an  institution — a  Fund  for  Education;*  the  interest 
of  which  alone  is  to  be  expended,  the  principal  to  be 
handed  down  as  our  salutation  to  the  Methodists  who 
shall  assemble  on  that  far-off  morning.  A  more 
practicable  or  more  sublime  design  is  hardly  possible 
to  the  denomination.  Its  other  leading  interests, 
like  missions,  Sunday-schools,  etc.,  have  the  habitual 
sympathy  and  support  of  its  people,  but  education 
can  hardly  expect  such  support,  and  yet  can  it  be 
pronounced  a  less  important,  though  it  may  be  a  less 
direct  interest  of  the  Church  ?  Were  its  centenary 
contributions  to  be  given  to  these  more  immediate 
interests,  they  would  soon  be  absorbed  or  expended, 

*  The  Centenary  plan,  as  appended  to  this  volume,  provides  for  spe 
cial  contributions  for  other  objects,  including  a  Centenary  Missionary 
building ;  but  these  are  comparatively  minor  designs. 


RESPONSIBILITIES  FOR  THE  FUTURE.         243 

profitably  indeed,  but  in  such  manner  as  to  lose  their 
monumental  character.  The  Church  can  confide 
these  interests  to  its  current  sympathy  and  help,  but 
education  needs  permanent  endowment,  and  a  great 
educational  fund,  like  that  proposed,  is  of  all  Church 
interests  the  best  fitted  to  be  monumental.  It  can 
continually  assist  our  existing  seminaries  and  erect 
new  ones,  and  yet  its  undiminished  principal  be  trans 
mitted  as  our  benediction  to  the  future.  Let  us  then 
establish  it  on  a  scale  worthy  not  only  of  the  last,  but 
of  the  next  hundred  years  of  our  history. 

With  such  a  history,  such  capabilities,  and  such 
responsibilities  and  aims,  we  enter  upon  the  hund 
redth  year  of  our  great  mission.  The  eye  of  Chris 
tendom  will  be  specially  upon  us  this  year.  The 
eye  of  God  will  be  specially  upon  us.  All  the 
doings  of  the  year  should  be  done  as  in  the  sight  of 
him  and  of  his  whole  catholic  Church.  At  the 
close  of  the  memorable  year,  both  he  and  his  general 
Church  will  judge  us  according  to  our  works.  We 
shall  then  also  be  compelled  to  judge  ourselves.  The 
measure  of  our  gratitude  for  such  great  prosperity,  of 
our  sense  of  such  great  responsibility,  and  of  our 
Christian  zeal  for  the  improvement  of  such  a  sublime 
opportunity,  will  be  apparent  to  ourselves  and  to  all 
the  world.  Surely  we  shall  not,  we  cannot,  fail  to  rise 
to  the  high  occasion.  We  will  consecrate  it  with 
hymns  of  acclamation,  with  prayer,  with  the  renewal 


244        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

of  our  religious  vows,  and  unequaled  offerings  of 
treasure.  The  first  donation  for  the  occasion  has 
already  been  tendered,  and  has  never  been  equaled 
by  any  personal  act  of  liberality  in  the  history  of 
Methodism.  If  it  cannot  be  equaled  by  other  donors, 
yet  should  it  be  a  standard  by  which  we  should  all 
proportionately  measure  our  liberality.  Should  a 
dollar  be  laid  on  the  altar  of  the  Church  this  year 
by  each  of  its  recorded  members,  the  sum  will  be 
nearly  a  million.  There  is  scarcely  one  of  them, 
young  or  old3  who  cannot  give  this  pittance.  It 
should  be  the  resolution  of  the  Church  that  every 
member  shall  thus  have  a  share  in  its  offerings; 
every  Society  in  the  connection  should  see  that  it  be 
obtained,  and  should  provide  it  for  any  individual 
case  of  extreme  poverty,  if  any  such  there  be,  where 
it  cannot  be  afforded.  Besides  this  amount  of  nearly 
a  million,  we  can  expect  thousands  of  gifts  from  five 
dollars  to  five,  ten,  or  twenty  thousand  each,  and 
probably  some  of  still  greater  amount.  Thus  while 
in  acts  of  worship  around  our  altars  we  celebrate  the 
centenary  festival,  let  us  heap  upon  those  altars  the 
palpable  proofs  of  the  sincerity  of  our  gratitude,  and 
by  the  close  of  the  joyous  year,  present  to  the  Chris 
tian  world  an  example  of  beneficence  which  shall 
never  be  forgotten. 


CONNECTIONAL  ARRANGEMENTS 

FOE  THE  CELEBRATION   OF  THE 

CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM, 
1866, 


AS  AUTHOKIZED  BY  THE  GENEEAL  CONFEEENCE,  AND 
THE  COMMITTEES  APPOINTED  BY  ITS  OEDEE. 


BY  JOHN  M'CLINTOCK,  D.D. 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN 


FOB  THE  CELEBRATION  OF  THE 


CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 


ORDER  OF  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE. 

THE  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  at  its  session  in  Philadelphia,  1864,  adopted 
the  following  preamble  and  resolutions  : 

Whereas,  Methodism  in  the  United  States  of  America  will 
complete  the  first  century  of  its  history  in  1866 ; 

And  wJiereas,  under  the  special  blessing  of  God,  it  has  risen 
in  power  and  extended  in  usefulness  to  a  degree  hardly  paral 
leled  in  the  history  of  the  Church  ; 

And  especially  in  view  of  the  many  thousands  that  have  been 
saved  through  its  instrumentality,  the  influence  it  has  exerted 
upon  the  theology  of  its  times  and  the  evangelization  of  the 
world,  we  deem  it  right  to  observe  the  closing  period  of  this 
first  centenary  with  special  solemnities  and  pious  offerings, 
which  shall  present  before  God  some  humble  expression  of  our 
devout  gratitude,  and  lead  to  a  renewed  consecration  of  our 
selves,  our  services  and  means  to  the  glory  of  our  Divine  Mas 
ter  ;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  By  the  delegates  of  the  Annual  Conferences  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  General  Conference  assembled, 
as  follows : 

1.  The  centenary  of  Methodism  in  America  shall  be  cele- 


248        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

brated  by  all  our  Churches  and  people  with  devout  thanksgiv 
ing,  by  special  religious  services  and  liberal  thank-offerings. 

2.  This  celebration  shall  commence  on  the  first  Tuesday  in 
October,  1866,  and  continue  through  the  month,  at  such  times 
and  places  as  may  best  suit  the  convenience  of  the  Societies. 

3.  The  primary  object  of  the  celebration  shall  be  the  spiritual 
improvement  of  our  members,  and  especially  by  reviewing  the 
great  things  God  hath  wrought  for  us,  the  cultivating  of  feel 
ings  of  gratitude  for  the  blessings  received  through  the  agency 
of  Methodism. 

4.  As  the  gratitude  of  the  heart  ever  seeks  expression  in  out 
ward  acts,  we  invite  as  a  spontaneous  offering  to  Almighty  God 
on  this  occasion  pecuniary  contributions  from  each  "  according 
as  God  hath  prospered  him,"  to  be  so  appropriated  as  to  render 
more  efficient  in  the  century  to  come  those  institutions  and 
agencies  to  which  the  Church  has  been  so  deeply  indebted  in 
the  century  past. 

5.  Two  departments  of  Christian  enterprise  shall  be  placed 
before  our  people,  one  connectional,  central,  and  monumental, 
the  other  local  and  distributive,  and  all  shall  be  urged  to 
make  liberal  appropriations  to  both  according  to  their  own 
discretion. 

6.  The  Board   of  Bishops   shall  appoint  twelve   traveling 
preachers  and  twelve  laymen,  who,  in  connection  with  the 
members  of  their  own  Board,  shall  be  a  committee  to  determ 
ine  to  what  objects  and   in   what  proportions   the   moneys 
raised  as  connectional  funds  shall  be  appropriated,  and  have 
power  to  take  all  steps  necessary  to  their  proper  distribution. 

7.  The  local  funds  shall  be  appropriated  to  the  cause  of  edu 
cation  and  church  extension  under  the  direction  of  a  committee 
consisting  of  an  equal  number  of  ministers  and  laymen  ap 
pointed  by  the  several  Annual  Conferences  within  the  bounds 
of  which  they  are  raised. 

8.  Each  Annual  Conference  shall  provide  for  the  delivery  of 
a  memorial  sermon  before  its  own  body  at  the  session  next  pre 
ceding  the  centennial  celebration,  and  also  appoint  a  committee 
of  an  equal  number  of  ministers  and  laymen  to  give  advice  and 
direction  for  the  appropriate  celebration  of  the  centennial  in 
our  principal  Churches. 


CONNECTIONAL   PLAN.  249 

9.  As  the  highest  authority  of  the   Methodist   Episcopal 
Church,  we  commend  this  whole  subject  to  the  prayerful  con 
sideration  of  every  minister,  traveling   and  local,  and  every 
official  and  private  member  of  the  Church,  calling  for  the  most 
systematic  and  energetic  efforts  everywhere  to  carry  out  in  their 
true  spirit  these  noble  plans ;  and  after  due  consideration,  we 
deem  it  right  to  ask  for  and  to  expect  not  less  than  two  millions 
of  dollars  for  achievements  which  will  be  worthy  of  our  great 
and  honored  Church,  and  which  shall  show  to  our  descendants 
to  the  latest  generations  the  gratitude  we  feel  for  the  wonder 
ful  Providence  which  originated  and  has  so  largely  blessed  and 
prospered  our  beloved  Church. 

10.  We  cordially  invite  our  brethren  in  all  the  branches  of 
the  great  Methodist  family,  in  this  and  in  other  lands,  to  unite 
with  us  in  this  grand  Centennial  Celebration,  that  together  we 
may  lift  our  thanksgivings  to  the  God  of  our  fathers,  and  renew 
our  consecration  to  his  spiritual  service. — Journal  of  General 
Conference,  1864,  pp.  445-447. 

COMMITTEE  APPOINTED  BY  THE  BISHOPS. 

In  accordance  with  the  sixth  of  the  above  resolu 
tions,  the  Board  of  Bishops  appointed  the  following 
persons,  to  constitute,  together  with  the  Bishops,  the 

Committee : 

Ministers. 

Eev.  George  Peck,  D.D. ;  Rev.  Charles  Elliott,  D.D. ;  Rev. 
John  M'Clintock,  D.D.;  Rev.  D.  P.  Kidder,  D.D. ;  Rev.  D. 
Patten,  D.D.;  Rev.  E.  Thomas;  Rev.  D.  W.  Bartine,  D.D. ; 
Rev.  F.  C.  Holliday,  D.D ;  Rev.  Thomas  Sewall,  D.D. ;  Rev. 
James  F.  Chalfant;  Rev.  Moses  Hill ;  Rev.  F.  A.  Blades. 

Laymen. 

Thomas  T.  Tasker,  Esq.,  Philadelphia;  George  C.  Cook, 
Esq.,  Chicago,  Illinois ;  The  Hon.  James  Bishop,  New  Bruns 
wick,  New  Jersey ;  John  Owen,  Esq.,  Detroit,  Michigan ;  Isaac 
Rich,  Esq.,  Boston ;  General  Clinton  B.  Fisk,  St.  Louis,  Mis- 


250        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

souri ;  I.  P.  Cook,  Esq.,  Baltimore,  Maryland  ;  The  Hon.  Gary  A. 
Trimble,  Chillicothe,  Ohio ;  Oliver  Hoyt,  Esq.,  New  York  city ; 
Alexander  Bradley,  Esq.,  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania ;  F.  H.  Root, 
Esq.,  Buffalo,  New  York ;  Edward  Sargent,  Esq.,  Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

This  committee  was  convened,  by  the  Board  of 
Bishops,  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  February  22,  1865. 

ACTION  OF  THE   GENERAL  COMMITTEE. 

At  the  time  appointed,  the  committee  met  at 
Cleveland.  All  the  bishops  were  present  except 
Bishop  Thomson,  then  in  India.  The  ministers  and 
laymen  of  the  committee  were  gathered  from  every 
part  of  the  Church :  the  East,  the  Center,  the  West, 
and  the  Pacific  slope  were  all  fairly  in  presence  of 
each  other  in  deliberation.  It  is  believed  that  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  thoroughly,  as  a 
whole,  represented  at  Cleveland. 

The  spirit  of  the  committee  was  admirable.  The 
utmost  freedom  of  speech  prevailed ;  every  bishop, 
every  minister,  and  every  layman  on  the  committee 
took  part  in  the  discussions  at  some  period  of  its  pro 
tracted  session.  All  opinions  were  compared,  all  in 
terests  were  weighed,  and  all  proposed  plans  were 
discussed.  The  great  aim  was  so  to  provide  for  the 
Connectional  interests  of  the  Church,  and  for  such  a 
Connectional  demonstration  of  devotion  to  her  wel 
fare,  as  not  only  not  to  interfere  with  local  wants, 
but  also,  and  to  a  large  extent,  to  provide  for  them. 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  251 

An  adjourned  meeting  of  the  committee  was  held 
in  New  York  on  the  8th  of  November,  1865.  The 
result  of  the  deliberations  of  such  a  body  of  men, 
animated  by  such  a  spirit,  is  set  forth  in  the  final 
resolutions  of  the  committee,  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  committee  that  the  Cen 
tenary  Educational  Fund  ought  to  be  placed  before  our  people 
as  the  prominent  object  for  connectional  contributions. 

Resolved,  That  if  any  contributors  desire  to  specify  the  pre 
cise  objects  of  their  centenary  subscriptions,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  it  shall  be  open  to  them  to  name  the  following  objects, 
namely : 

1.  The  Centenary  Educational  Fund. 

2.  The  Garrett  Biblical  School  at  Evanston. 

3.  The  Methodist  General  Biblical  Institute  at  Concord,  to 
be  removed  to  the  vicinity  of  Boston. 

4.  A  Biblical  Institute  in  the  Eastern  Middle  States. 

5.  A  Biblical  Institute  in  Cincinnati  or  vicinity. 

6.  A  Biblical  Institute  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

But  contributions  to  these  three  last  objects  (4,  5,  and  6)  shall 
be  retained  and  managed  by  the  Centenary  Educational  Board 
till  assured  that  enough  has  been  actually  raised  from  other 
sources  to  make  the  aggregate  amount,  including  the  connec 
tional  contributions  to  those  respective  objects,  not  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  each  case. 

7.  The  erection  of  Centenary  Missionary  buildings  for  the 
Mission  House  at  New  York. 

8.  The  Irish  Connectional  Fund. 

9.  The  Biblical  School  at  Bremen,  Germany. 

10.  The  Chartered  Fund.     (Such  sums  as  contributors  may 
desire  to  appropriate  in  that  way  to  the  support  of  worn-out 
preachers,  their  widows  and  orphans.) 

Resolved,  That  all  the  unspecified  funds  raised  throughout 
the  Church,  and  also  all  sums  specifically  contributed  for  the 
"  Centenary  Educational  Fund,"  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
Board,  to  be  appointed  as  provided  in  a  subsequent  resolution, 


252        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

to  be  called  the  Centenary  Connectional  Educational  Board 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Resolved,  That  the  said  board  shall  securely  invest  the  en 
tire  principal  funds,  and  shall  appropriate  the  interest  only 
from  time  to  time,  at  their  discretion,  to  the  following  purposes 
and  none  other,  namely : 

a.  To  aid  young  men  preparing  for  the  foreign  missionary 
work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

&.  To  aid  young  men  preparing  for  the  ministry  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  These  two  objects  to  be  reached 
through  the  Missionary  Society,  the  bishops,  and  such  educa 
tional  societies  of  the  Church  as  may  be  approved  by  the 
board. 

c.  To  the  aid  of  the  two  biblical  or  theological  schools  now 
in  existence,  and  of  such  others  as  may,  with  the  approval  of 
the  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
hereafter  be  established. 

d.  To  the  aid  of  universities,  colleges,  or   academies  now 
existing  under  the  patronage  of  the  Church,  or  which  may 
hereafter  be  established. 

Provided,  1.  That  no  appropriation  shall  be  made  by  the 
board  at  any  time  for  building  purposes,  either  for  biblical 
schools,  or  for  universities,  colleges,  or  academies. 

2.  That  no  university,  college,  or  academy  not  now  in 
existence  shall  be  aided  by  the  board,  unless  the  board  shall 
first  have  been  consulted,  and  shall  have  approved  of  the 
establishment  and  organization  of  such  institution. 

Resolved,  That  the  board  shall  consist  of  twelve  trustees,  of 
whom  two  shall  be  bishops,  four  ministers,  and  six  laymen, 
of  which  number  five  shall  be  a  quorum ;  and  no  trustee  shall 
receive  any  compensation  for  his  services,  except  for  expenses 
in  attending  the  sessions  of  the  board. 

Resolved,  That  the  board  be  authorized  to  secure  a  suitable 
charter,  which  shall  empower  the  board  to  receive,  hold,  and 
convey  real  and  personal  estate,  and  to  receive  and  administer 
bequests  and  legacies :  also  to  fix  the  seat  of  its  operations  and 
of  its  place  of  meeting  from  time  to  time,  and  to  appoint,  if 
need  be,  a  secretary  and  treasurer,  with  proper  compensation, 
who  shall  be  required  to  give  suitable  bonds. 


CONNECTIONAL   PLAN.  253 

Resolved,  That  the  bishops  be  authorized  and  requested  to 
appoint  the  first  board,  and  that  at  its  first  meeting  the  board 
shall  settle  by  lot  the  terms  of  service  of  its  individual  mem 
bers  in  such  manner  that  four  trustees  shall  go  out  of  office 
with  each  and  every  General  Conference  term  of  four  years,  and 
that  all  vacancies  be  filled  as  follows,  namely:  The  General 
Conference  shall  nominate  two  persons  for  each  vacancy,  and 
the  trustees  shall  choose  one  to  fill  the  vacancy ;  provided,  how 
ever,  that  all  vacancies  occurring  more  than  six  months  before 
the  session  of  the  General  Conference  shall  be  filled  by  the 
bishops,  the  persons  so  appointed  to  hold  office  only  up  to  the 
time  of  the  General  Conference,  when  their  places  shall  be  held 
as  vacant,  and  shall  be  filled  as  aforesaid. 

Jtesolved,  That  a  committee  be  appointed,  to  be  called 
"The  Central  Centenary  Committee  of  Arrangements  and 
Correspondence,"  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  correspond  with 
the  conference  Centenary  Committees,  to  prepare  and  publish 
the  necessary  documents,  through  the  periodical  press  and 
otherwise,  and  to  make  such  other  arrangements  as  may  be 
necessary  to  secure  the  general  sympathy  and  co-operation 
of  the  Church  in  the  connectional  part  of  the  Centenary  collec 
tions. 

"Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  six  be  appointed  by  the 
Chair  to  nominate  the  Central  Committee." 

The  Chair  appointed  the  committee  of  six.  After 
a  short  deliberation  the  committee  reported  the  follow 
ing  names,  to  constitute  the  "  Central  Centenary 
Committee  of  Arrangements  and  Correspondence," 
namely:  Dr.  M'Clintock,  Dr.  Curry,  Dr.  Crooks, 
Mr.  Oliver  Hoyt,  Mr.  James  Bishop,  and  Mr.  C.  C. 
North. 

Finally,  a  number  of  Branch  Centenary  Committees 
were  appointed,  and  the  Central  Committee  was  au 
thorized  to  appoint  additional  branches.  A  list  of 


254:        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

the  committees  appointed  at  Cleveland  will  be  found 
below. 

THE   CENTRAL  CENTENARY  COMMITTEE. 

The  Central  Committee  began  its  sessions,  in  the 
city  of  ~New  York,  soon  after  the  session  of  the 
General  Committee.  Its  first  duty  was  to  distrib 
ute  the  Minutes  of  the  General  Committee,  copies 
of  which  were  sent  to  every  member  of  that  com 
mittee,  to  all  members  of  the  branch  committees,  as 
far  as  then  formed,  to  every  presiding  elder  through 
out  the  Church,  and  to  all  the  editors  of  Methodist 
papers. 

The  next  step  of  the  committee  was  to  form  ad 
ditional  branch  committees.  The  General  Com 
mittee  had  already  appointed  branches  for  the  prin 
cipal  cities.  It  was  thought  best,  in  order  to  reach 
the  whole  Church,  that  a  branch  committee  should 
be  formed  for  each  presiding  elder's  district,  with  the 
presiding  elder  at  its  head.  Circulars  were  issued  in 
May,  1865,  to  all  the  presiding  elders,  requesting  them 
to  nominate  committees.  In  many  cases  the  answers 
to  this  circular  were  long  delayed,  and  even  yet 
(November,  1865)  some  of  the  districts  are  not  pro 
vided  for.  The  Rev.  ~W.  C.  Hoyt,  who  was  appointed 
secretary  of  the  committee  in  August,  entered  into  a 
very  extensive  correspondence  on  the  subject ;  and  it 
is  now  hoped  that  within  a  few  months  every  district 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  255 

in  the  Church  will  be  represented.     A  complete  list 
will  be  issued  before  October,  1866. 

CITY   BRANCH   COMMITTEES. 

BALTIMOKE  :  Thomas  Kelso,  William  Hamilton,  D.D.,  I.  P. 
Cook.  BOSTON  :  N.  E.  Cobleigh,  D.D.,  Hon  J.  Sleeper,  I.  Rich. 
BROOKLYN  :  Hon.  M.  F.  Odell,  John  French,  Samuel  Truslow. 
BUFFALO  :  Rev.  J.  E.  Robie,  F.  H.  Root,  H.  H.  Otis.  CENTRAL 
NEW  YORK  :  Rev.  D.  D.  Lore,  Mr.  Wood,  of  Rochester,  Rev.  W. 
H.  Goodwin,  Samuel  Luckey,  D.D.,  G.  Peck,  D.D.  CHICAGO  : 
T.  M.  Eddy,  D.D.,  J.  V.  Farwell,  A.  R.  Scranton.  CHILLICOTHE, 
OHIO:  William  T.  M'Clintock,  William  M'Kell,  O.  Harmen. 
CINCINNATI  :  James  F.  Chalfant,  Rev.  J.  M.  Reid,  D.D.,  Harvey 
De  Camp.  CLEVELAND,  O. :  H.  Benton,  W.  P.  Cook,  Rev.  M. 
Hill.  CONCORD,  N.  H. :  Rev.  E.  Adams,  William  Prescott,  M.D., 
Hon.  T.  L.  Tullock.  COLUMBUS,  O. :  Rev.  J.  M.  Trimble,  D.D., 
J.  F.  Bartlett,  Timothy  Carpenter.  DETROIT  :  S.  Cements,  Jr., 
D.  Preston,  Hon.  John  Owen.  DENVER  CITY:  O.  A.  Willard, 
Gov.  John  Evans,  Rev.  B.  T.  Vincent.  HARTFORD  :  Rev.  M.  L. 
Scudder,  J.  F.  Judd,  C.  P.  Case.  INDIANAPOLIS  :  Rev.  F.  C. 
Holliday,  D.D.,  O.  Toucy,  J.  S.  Dunlop.  KALAMAZOO,  MICH.  : 
F.  D.  Hemmingly,  S.  W.  Walker,  H.  Wood.  MEMPHIS,  TENN.  : 
Rev.  Wm.  Hawkins,  F.  A.  Marou,  Dr.  C.  Collins.  MIDDLE- 
TOWN:  Rev.  John  Pegg,  Jr.,  Prof.  John  Yan  Vleck,  Hon.  D. 
W.  Camp.  MONTPELIER,  VT.  :  Rev.  E.  J.  Scott,  Hon.  P.  Dil- 
lingham,  Rev.  P.  P.  Ray.  NASHVILLE,  TENN.  :  Rev.  W.  H. 
Norris,  James  K.  Ferris.  NEWARK  :  C.  Walsh,  Rev.  L.  R.  Dunn, 
Thomas  Campbell.  NEW  HAVEN:  Rev.  T.  H.  Burch,  James 
Punderford,  W.  O*  Armstrong.  NEW  ORLEANS  :  Rev.  J.  P. 
Newman,  D.D.,  Rev.  W.  H.  Pearne,  G.  W.  Ames.  PHILADEL 
PHIA  :  Joseph  Castle,  D.D.,  J.  Whiteman,  C.  Heiskell.  PITTS 
BURGH  :  Dr.  S.  H.  Nesbit,  Alexander  Bradley,  W.  H.  Kincaid. 
PORTLAND,  ME.  :  E.  Clark,  M.D.,  George  Webber,  D.D.,  S.  Rich. 
PORTLAND,  OREGON  :  Rev.  H.  C.  Benson,  D.D.,  Hon.  N.  C. 
Gibbs,  Rev.  William  Roberts.  PROVIDENCE,  R.  I.:  Hon.  W. 
B.  Lawton,  Rev.  Paul  Townsend,  J.  D.  Flint.  SAN  FRANCISCO  ; 
Rev.  E.  Thomas,  A.  Merrill,  W.  H.  Coddington.  ST.  PAUL, 
MINN.:  Rev.  C.  Brooks,  D.D.,  Rev.  C.  Hobart,  Hon.  John 


256        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN   METHODISM. 

Nikols.  ST.  Louis,  Mo. :  Rev.  B.  F.  Crary,  D.D.,  Gen.  C.  B. 
Fisk,  S.  Rich.  VIRGINIA  CITY:  Gov.  H.  G.  Blaisdell,  Rev. 
Thomas  S.  Dunn,  J.  Faul.  WASHINGTON  CITY:  Rev.  John 
Lanahan,  D.D.,  Rev.  B.  H.  Nadal,  W.  Woodward,  Esq. 
WHEELING,  VA.  :  Rev.  J.  Drummond,  D.D.,  Hon.  C.  Hubbard, 
A.  M.  Adams.  WILMINGTON,  DEL.  :  J.  Ganse,  G.  W.  Sparks, 
Rev.  J.  Riddle. 

CENTENARY   RELIGIOUS  SERVICES. 

The  primary  object  of  the  whole  Centenary  cele 
bration  is  declared  by  the  General  Conference  to  be 

The  spiritual  improvement  of  our  members ;  and  especially 
by  reviewing  the  great  things  God  hath  wrought  for  us,  the 
cultivating  of  feelings  of  gratitude  for  the  blessings  received 
through  the  agency  of  Methodism. 

To  carry  out  this  object  the  General  Conference 
further  directs  that 

Each  Annual  Conference  shall  provide  for  the  delivery  of  a 
memorial  sermon  before  its  own  body  at  the  session  next  pre 
ceding  the  centennial  celebration,  and  also  appoint  a  committee 
of  an  equal  number  of  ministers  and  laymen  to  give  advice  and 
direction  for  the  appropriate  celebration  of  the  Centennial  in 
our  principal  Churches. 

The  Committee,  in  accordance  with  a  generally 
expressed  desire  from  various  parts  of  the  Church, 
recommend  also  the  following : 

That  the  first  Sunday  in  January,  1866,  be  observed  as  a  day 
of  special  and  united  prayer  for  the  divine  blessing  upon  the 
Centenary  services  of  the  year,  and  for  a  general  revival  of 
religion  that  the  Centenary  year  may  prove  to  be  an  epoch  in 
the  spiritual  progress  of  the  Church ;  and  that  the  pastors  of 
all  our  Churches  be  requested  to  read  the  Centenary  Resolu 
tions  of  the  General  Conference  and  to  expound  them  to  their 
people  on  that  occasion. 


CONNECTIONAL   PLAN.  257 

That  a  special  service  be  set  apart  in  each  of  our  societies 
where  there  is  a  Sunday-school,  in  October,  1866,  for  a  children's 
celebration  of  the  Centenary  festival,  and  that  suitable  arrange 
ments  be  made  in  due  time  by  the  Branch  Committees  in  con 
cert  with  the  pastors  and  Sunday-school  teachers. 

That  the  last  Sunday  of  October,  1866,  be  observed  as  a 
day  of  Special  CeDtenary  services,  and  that  the  Central  Com 
mittee  prepare  and  publish  a  proclamation  and  programme  in 
reference  to  the  observance  of  the  day. 

The  Centenary  Religious  Services  will  thus  in 
clude:  (1.)  The  services  of  the  first  Sunday  in 
January,  1866.  (2.)  The  memorial  sermon  before 
each  Annual  Conference.  (3.)  The  Church  services 
in  October,  1866,  plans  for  which  are  to  be  suggested 
by  the  Annual  Conference  Committees.  (4.)  The 
Sunday-school  services  in  October,  1866,  to  be  ar 
ranged  by  the  Centenary  Branch  Committees,  in  con 
cert  with  pastors  and  Sunday-school  officers.  (5.)  The 
Special  Centenary  Thanksgiving  service  of  the  last 
Sunday  in  October,  1866,  under  uniform  arrange 
ments  for  the  whole  Church. 

Other  religious  services,  such  as  general  class- 
meetings,  prayer-meetings,  district  meetings,  etc., 
will  doubtless  be  held,  under  the  directions  of  the 
Presiding  Elders,  Pastors,  and  Branch,  Committees 
in  the  various  localities. 

CENTENARY   CONTRIBUTIONS. 

The  General  Conference  directs  (see  above,  p.  248) 

that  two  classes  of  objects,  Connectional  and  Local, 

17 


258        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

shall  be  placed  before  the  people  for  their  con 
tributions.  What  the  connection al  objects  shall 
be  has  been  decided  by  the  Joint  Committee  of 
Ministers  and  Laymen  appointed  by  the  General 
Conference  for  that  purpose.  What  the  local  ob 
jects  shall  be  is  to  be  decided,  in  each  conference, 
by  a  Committee  of  Ministers  and  Laymen  appointed 
by  the  conference. 

CONNECTIONAL  OBJECTS. 

The  objects  named  for  contributions  by  the  Cleve 
land  Committee  are,  as  will  have  been  seen,  (pages 
251  and  252,)  all  of  a  Connectional  character.  The 
first  place  is  given  to  Education.  The  chief  object 
presented  to  the  Church,  for  connectional  contribu 
tions,  is  the  foundation  of  a  Permanent  Fund,  to  be 
called  "The  Centenary  Educational  Fund;"  the 
interest  only  of  which  is  to  be  employed  in  aiding 
our  institutions  of  learning  and  in  helping  poor 
young  men  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  ministry 
at  home,  or  for  the  missionary  work  abroad.  As 
Dr.  Stevens  remarks,  (p.  242,)  "a  more  practicable 
or  more  sublime  design  is  hardly  possible  to  the 
denomination."  See  his  remarks,  at  the  page  cited, 
in  confirmation  of  this  broad  statement.  Our  more 
thoughtful  and  far-seeing  contributors  will  doubtless 
give  to  this  object  more  largely  than  to  any  of  the 
others  named. 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  259 

It  is  the  one  object  to  which  every  member  of  the 
Church,  it  is  hoped,  will  contribute  something,  inas 
much  as  it  is,  of  all  the  objects  named,  the  most 
thoroughly  Connectional  and  the  most  clearly  monu 
mental.  A  permanent  fund  of  a  million  of  dollars, 
or  more,  will  be  a  monumental  institution,  more 
lasting  than  brass,  to  carry  down  to  posterity  the 
gratitude  of  the  Methodists  of  1866,  as  testified  by 
their  Centenary  gifts.  It  will  form  at  the  same  time 
our  most  beneficent  legacy  of  the  Centenary  year  to 
the  century  that  is  to  follow.  The  rapid  march  of 
the  census  of  American  population  outstrips  all 
calculation.  By  the  year  1900  there  will  be  teeming 
millions  in  regions  now  just  opened  to  settlement 
and  to  enterprise.  Moreover,  the  whole  South  is 
just  reopened  by  the  extinction  of  the  great  rebel 
lion.  For  all  this  vast  population  our  Permanent 
Fund  will  afford  a  steady  assistance  and  stimulus  to 
effort  for  the  great  work  of  Christian  education. 
Let  us  make  this  fund  a  grand  and  worthy  Centenary 
monument.  If  there  be  failure  in  any  part  of  our 
plan,  let  there  be  none  in  this. 

All  the  other  objects  proposed  by  the  Committee 
have,  it  will  be  seen,  a  Connectional  character.  The 
Committee  has  taken  it  for  granted  that  the  con 
ferences  severally  will  provide,  in  their  local  col 
lections,  for  their  colleges  and  academies.  But 
the  interest  of  theological  education  is  a  com- 


260        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

mon  and  connectional  one.  Ministers  educated  at 
Boston  or  Evanston,  in  New  York  or  Ohio,  or 
even  on  the  Pacific  coast,  are  educated  for  the  whole 
Church.  They  may  be  transferred,  in  a  year  after 
graduation,  from  the  East  to  the  West,  or  from  the 
North  to  the  South.  The  whole  Church  is  interest 
ed  in  each  of  the  existing  theological  schools,  and 
in  the  new  ones  contemplated  by  the  Centenary 
Committee,  because  it  is  the  interest  of  the  whole 
Church  that  her  young  men  everywhere,  who  are 
called  to  the  ministry,  should  have  the  opportunity 
of  theological  training. 

The  Missionary  Society  is  also  a  thoroughly  con 
nectional  interest.  The  society  must  have  a  perma 
nent  home.  Its  Centenary  Hall  will  not  only  afford 
the  necessary  accommodation  for  the  vast  operations 
of  the  society,  but  will  also  be  a  permanent  and 
visible  monument  of  the  centenary  year. 

The  Irish  Fund  is  also  a  connectional  enterprise. 
There  is  hardly  a  corner  of  Methodism  in  the 
United  States  that  has  not  been  strengthened  by 
Irish  Methodism.  There  is  not  a  conference  which 
does  not  contain  ministers  from  Ireland  or  of  Irish 
descent.  There  are  more  Methodists  from  Ireland 
in  our  Church  than  are  left  in  Ireland.  The 
small  contribution  named  by  the  Centenary  Com 
mittee  will  no  doubt  be  offered  freely  by  the 
Church.  Those  of  our  members  who  are  them- 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  261 

selves  from  Ireland,  or  who  are  of  Irish  descent, 
will,  no  doubt,  see  to  it  that  this  part  of  our  con- 
nectional  plan  shall  not  fail.  And  they  will  be 
aided  by  many  others  who  will  remember  that 
Methodism  was  first  planted  in  America  by  Em 
bury  and  Strawbridge,  both  Irishmen,  and  who 
will  see  a  special  fitness  in  recognizing  this  obliga 
tion  on  the  Centenary  occasion.  The  very  Cente 
nary  date  itself  is  fixed  by  the  date  (1766)  of  the 
labors  of  Embury,  the  Irish  local  preacher,  who 
was  the  honored  instrument  of  planting  Methodism 
in  America. 

The  Biblical  School  at  Bremen  affords  instruction 
to  young  men  preparing  for  the  ministry  in  Ger 
many,  as  well  as  in  America.  Its  support  appeals  to 
no  single  locality  of  Methodism,  but  to  the  whole 
Church.  Let  us  remember  that  the  Palatine  Irish, 
among  whom  Embury  and  his  associates  were  trained, 
were  not  Romanists,  but  the  children  of  German 
Protestants.  Let  us  remember,  too,  that  our  Meth 
odist  theology,  and  especially  our  Methodist  view  of 
practical  and  experimental  religion,  were  originally 
derived  by  Wesley  from  German  sources.  It  was 
the  reading  of  Luther  on  Galatians  that  led  Wesley 
to  true  faith  in  Christ.  It  was  the  influence  of  the 
suggestions  of  Bohler  and  the  Moravians  that  gave 
his  mind  the  first  bias  toward  the  full  evangelical 
view  of  faith  and  its  effects.  (See  pp.  29-32.)  And 


262        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

with  this  sense  of  gratitude  for  the  past,  let  us  con 
sult  our  security  for  the  future,  by  doing  all  we  can 
to  evangelize,  in  their  own  home,  the  Germans  who 
are  to  make  up  so  large  a  part  of  the  future  Ameri 
can  people. 

MODES  OF  CONTRIBUTION. 

The  general  modes  of  giving  to  the  Centenary 
objects  are  two,  contributions  by  individuals,  and 
Church  collections.  In  addition  to  these,  special 
provision  has  been  made,  as  will  be  seen  below,  for 
Sunday-school  collections. 

Contributions. 

1.  Contributions  may  be  made  at  any  time  between 
this  date  and  the  end  of  October,  1866.     It  is  sug 
gested  that,  in  all  large  cities  and  important  towns, 
preliminary  meetings  of  leading  laymen  be  held,  for 
information  as  to  the  plan  and  scope  of  the  move 
ment,  for  the  distribution  of  Centenary  documents, 
and  for  the  securing  of  subscriptions.     Liberal  dona 
tions  from  our  prominent  members,  at  an  early  date, 
will  give  tone  and  spirit  to  the  whole  Centenary  enter 
prise.     The  Pastors  and  Branch  Committees  should 
take  pains  to  get  up  such  meetings,  and  to  see  that 
all  contributions  be  reported  duly  to  the  treasurer. 

2.  Contributions  may  be  made  payable  in  cash, 
or  in  such  installments  as  the  donor  may  find  con 
venient  to  himself;  such  installments,  of  course,  being 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  263 

properly  secured,  to  avoid  trouble  or  litigation  in 
case  of  death. 

3.  Donors  will,  in  all  cases,  specify  what  amount 
of  their  contribution  is  intended  for  Connectional, 
and  what  for  Local  purposes.  Thus,  suppose  that  a 
person  intends  to  give  a  certain  sum,  he  may  simply 
say,  "I  give  so  much  to  the  Connectional  and  so 
much  to  the  Local  Fund."  In  that  case  his  connec- 
tional  sum  will  go  to  the  "  Permanent  Educational 
Fund,"  while  his  local  sum  will  be  appropriated 
by  the  Conference  Local  Committee. 

Or,  he  may  wish  to  divide  his  Connectional  con 
tributions  among  the  several  Connectional  objects 
named.  In  that  case  he  may  say,  "  I  give  so  much 
to  the  Centenary  Educational  Fund ;  so  much  to  the 
Garrett  Biblical  Institute,  (or  to  the  Boston  Biblical 
Institute,  etc.,  as  the  case  may  be;)  so  much  for 
Centenary  Mission  Buildings  at  New  York ;  so  much 
for  the  Irish  Fund ;  so  much  for  the  Biblical  Insti 
tute  at  Bremen;  and  so  much  for  the  Chartered 
Fund."  Of  course,  every  donor  may  vary  his  relative 
contributions  to  each  of  these  objects  at  his  own 
pleasure.  But  let  it  always  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  "Centenary  Educational  Fund""  is  the  chief 
object  to  be  considered. 

Collections. 

1.  It  is  understood  that  Centenary  collections  will 
be  taken,  in  all  our  churches  throughout  the  land, 


264:        CENTENAKY   OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

before  the  close  of  October,  1866.  The  collections 
may  be  fixed  for  some  special  day  in  that  month,  or 
may  be  taken  up  at  every  meeting  to  be  held  during 
the  month,  as  may  seem  most  expedient  to  the  local 
authorities. 

2.  It  is  earnestly  hoped  that  there  will  be  universal 
agreement   to  the   principle   that    the    plate   collec 
tions,  and  all  unspecified  contributions  made  in  the 
public  congregation,  shall  be  divided  equally  between 
the  Connectional  and  Local  Funds. 

3.  It  is  suggested  that  as  the  month  of  October, 
1866,   is   appropriated  by  the   General   Conference 
for  Centenary  collections,  it  is  desirable  that,  as  far 
as  possible,  all   other  special  collections  should  be 
avoided  in  our  Churches  during  that  month. 

Sunday-School  Collections. 

The  Central  Committee  having  called  the  attention 
of  the  General  Committee  to  the  importance  of 
enlisting  our  Sunday-schools  in  the  centenary  move 
ment,  after  fully  considering  the  subject  the  following 
action  was  taken : 

1.  That  a  Sunday-school  children's  fund  be  established  for 
the  following  purposes  and  under  the  following  conditions: 
(1.)  The  fund  to  be  vested  in  and  administered  by  the  Board 
of  Trustees  already  authorized,  but  to  be  kept  as  a  separate 
fund.  (2.)  The  interest  of  it  to  be  appropriated  to  assist 
meritorious  Sunday-school  scholars  of  either  sex  who  may  need 
help  in  obtaining  a  more  advanced  education.  (3.)  Each  con 
ference  to  share  in  the  annual  proceeds  of  this  fund  proper- 


;  CONNECTIONAL   PLAN.  265 

tionately  to  the  number  of  Sunday-scliool  children  under  its 
care.  (4.)  That  the  beneficiaries  within  the  bounds  of  each 
annual  conference  be  selected  in  such  manner  as  each  confer 
ence  shall  direct. 

2.  Each  Sunday-school  scholar  who  shall  contribute  one 
dollar  to  the  Children's  Fund,  and  each  one  who  shall  col 
lect  five  dollars  for  the  same,  and  pay  that  amount  into  the 
treasury,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  medal  as  hereinafter 
described. 

These  medals  will  have  the  head  of  Rev.  John 
Wesley  on  one  side,  and  that  of  Bishop  Asbury,  the 
pioneer  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
on  the  other.  The  inscriptions  will  "be :  on  one  side, 
"  Children's  Medal ; "  and  on  the  other,  "  Centenary 
of  American  Methodism,  1866." 

It  is  recommended  that  a  special  service  be  set 
apart  in  each  of  our  societies  where  there  is  a  Sun 
day-school,  in  October,  1866,  for  a  children's  celebra 
tion  of  the  centenary  festival,  and  that  suitable 
arrangements  be  made  in  due  time  by  the  branch 
committees,  in  concert  with  the  pastors  and  Sunday- 
school  officers.  ^VSTe  think  this  subject  as  it  is  here 
presented  cannot  fail  to  secure  the  hearty  co-opera 
tion  of  all  our  Sunday-schools — officers,  teachers, 
scholars,  and  friends. 

CENTENARY   DOCUMENTS. 

The  Central  Committee  has  commenced  the  publi 
cation  of  a  series  of  Centenary  Documents,  which 


266        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

will  be  issued  from  time  to  time.  Among  these 
documents  will  be  found  the  Resolutions  of  the 
General  Conference,  the  Address  of  the  Bishops,  the 
Address  of  the  Central  Committee,  Instructions  to 
Branch  Committees,  and  several  tracts  explanatory 
of  the  Centenary  movement,  and  of  its  objects. 
These  documents  may  be  obtained  of  the  Branch 
Committees,  of  the  Book  Agents  at  New  York, 
Cincinnati,  Chicago,  and  the  Depositories  generally, 
or  upon  application  in  writing  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  Central  Committee,  200  Mulberry-street,  New 
York. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  General  Conference  of  1864,  after  setting 
forth  the  two  great  channels  of  contribution,  Con- 
nectional  and  Local,  for  the  gifts  of  the  people, 
appealed  to-  the  Church  in  the  following  stirring 
words : 

As  tlie  highest  authority  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
we  commend  this  whole  subject  to  the  prayerful  consideration 
of  every  minister,  traveling  and  local,  and  every  official  and 
private  member  of  the  Church,  calling  for  the  most  systematic 
and  energetic  efforts  everywhere  to  carry  out  in  their  true  spirit 
these  noble  plans;  and  after  due  consideration,  we  deem  it 
right  to  ask  for  and  to  expect  not  less  than  two  millions  of 
dollars  for  achievements  which  will  be  worthy  of  our  great 
and  honored  Church,  and  which  shall  show  to  our  descendants 
to  the  latest  generations  the  gratitude  we  feel  for  the  wonder 
ful  Providence  which  originated  and  has  so  largely  blessed  and 
prospered  our  beloved  Church. 


CONNECTIONAL  PLAN.  267 

The  sum  of  two  millions  is  here  named  as  the 
lowest  mark  at  which  the  Church  should  aim  in  its 
Centenary  offerings  of  gratitude.  It  is  believed  that 
this  minimum  will  be  largely  transcended;  and, 
indeed,  that  the  final  summing  up  will  be  nearer 
four  millions  than  two.  And  without  pretending  to 
dictate  to  the  ministry  or  the  membership  of  the 
Church,  we  feel  it  our  duty  to  make  the  following 
concluding  suggestions : 

1.  One  great  object  of  the  Centenary  movement 
should  be  to  promote   the   Connectional   spirit  of 
Methodism,  and  to  bind  anew,  in  cords  of  fraternal 
love  and  of  devotion  to  the  common  cause,  the  East, 
the  West,  the  North,  and  the   South.     So  let  us 
rebuke,  by  the  grand  unity  of  our  vast  societies,  the 
spirit  of   secession,   whether  in   Church   or    State. 
Unity  in  Christ  is  one  of  the  needful  marks  of  the 
true  Church,  and  to  promote  the  unity  of  the  Ameri 
can  people  is  one  of  the  obvious  functions  of  the 
Church  in  this  country.     "We  trust  that  this  mark 
and  function  of  the  Church  will  be  dwelt  on  in  every 
pulpit  of  Methodism  at  some  period  of  the  Centenary 
celebration. 

2.  One  of  the  most  signal  and  obvious  ways  of 
showing  our  Connectional  spirit  will  be  to  contribute 
to  the  Centenary  Educational  Permanent  Fund,  and 
to   the   other   Connectional   objects  named  by  the 
General   Conference   and   its   committees.      As  we 


268        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

have  said,  the  whole  Church,  and  at  the  same  time 
every  locality  within  its  bounds,  is  interested  in  these 
objects. 

Local  objects  will  doubtless  be  urged,  with  earnest 
ness  and  pertinacity,  by  those  interested  in  them. 
We  do  not  wish  to  overshadow  these  objects  so  as 
to  hinder  their  success.  At  the  same  time  let  us 
remember  that  these  objects  are  always  with  us, 
always  at  our  doors,  and  therefore  always  likely  to 
be  taken  care  of.  But  our  Permanent  Fund  is  to  be 
the  great  mark  and  proof  of  our  connectional  feeling 
as  demonstrated  by  our  Centenary  gifts.  Let  the 
Centenary  year  be  our  Sabbath  of  Church  fellow 
ship  ;  one  year,  at  least,  out  of  the  century,  in  which 
we  shall  rise  above  all  local  and  sectional  thoughts, 
feelings,  and  interests,  into  the  higher  atmosphere  of 
our  Unity  in  the  Church,  and  in  Christ  the  Head  of 
the  Church. 

CENTRAL    COMMITTEE. 

J.  M'CLINTOCK,  D.D.,  OLIVER  HOYT,  ESQ., 

D.  CURRY,  D.D.,  JAMES  BISHOP,  ESQ., 

G.  R.  CROOKS,  D.D.,  C.  C.  NORTH,  ESQ. 
W.  C.  HOYT,  Secretary. 

GENERAL  TREASURERS,  CARLTON  &  PORTER,  200  Mulberry- 
street,  New  York. 

LOCAL  TREASURERS  will  be  appointed  by  eacli  Branch  Com 
mittee. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 
THE  GENERAL  RULES. 

THE  NATUKE,  DESIGN,  AND  GENERAL  KULES  OF  OUK 
UNITED   SOCIETIES. 

(I)  IN  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1739,  eight  or  ten 
persons  came  to  Mr.  Wesley  in  London,  who  appeared 
to  be  deeply  convinced  of  sin,  and  earnestly  groaning  for 
redemption.  They  desired  (as  did  two  or  three  more 
the  next  day)  that  he  would  spend  some  time  with  them 
in  prayer,  and  advise  them  how  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come;  which  they  saw  continually  hanging  over  their 
heads.  That  he  might  have  more  time  for  this  great 
work,  he  appointed  a  day  when  they  might  all  come  to- 
gether  ;  which  from  thenceforward  they  did  every  week, 
namely,  on  Thursday,  in  the  evening.  To  these,  and  as 
many  more  as  desired  to  join  with  them,  (for  their  num 
ber  increased  daily,)  he  gave  those  advices  from  time  to 
time  which  he  judged  most  needful  for  them ;  and  they 
always  concluded  their  meeting  with  prayer  suited  to 
their  several  necessities. 

(2)  This  was  the  rise  of  the  UNITED  SOCIETY,  first  in 
JZurope,  and  then  in  America.  Such  a  society  is  no  other 
than  "  a  company  of  men  having  the  form  and  seeking 


270        CENTENARY  OF  AMEKICAN  METHODISM. 

the  power  of  godliness,  united  in  order  to  pray  together, 
to  receive  the  word  of  exhortation,  and  to  watch  over  one 
another  in  love,  that  they  may  help  each  other  to  work 
out  their  salvation" 

(3)  That  it  may  the  more  easily  be  discerned  whether 
they  are  indeed  working  out  their  own  salvation,  each 
society  is  divided  into  smaller  companies,  called  classes, 
according  to  their  respective  places  of  abode.      There 
are  about  twelve  persons   in   a   class ;  one  of  whom  is 
styled  the  leader.     It  is  his  duty, 

I.  To  see  each  person  in  his  class  once  a  week  at  least ; 
in  order, 

1.  To  inquire  how  their  souls  prosper. 

2.  To  advise,  reprove,  comfort,  or  exhort  as  occasion 
may  require. 

3.  To  receive  what  they  are  willing  to  give  toward  the 
relief  of  the  preachers,  Church,  and  poor.* 

II.  To  meet  the  ministers  and  the  stewards  of  the  so 
ciety  once  a  week  ;  in  order, 

1.  To  inform  the  minister  of  any  that  are  sick,  or  of 
any  that  walk  disorderly,  and  will  not  be  reproved. 

2.  To  pay  the  stewards  what  they  have  received  of 
their  several  classes  in  the  week  preceding. 

(4)  There  is  only  one  condition  previously  required  of 
those  who  desire  admission  into  these  societies,  "  a  de 
sire  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  and  to  be  saved  from 
their  sins."    But  wherever  this  is  really  fixed  in  the  soul, 
it  will  be  shown  by  its  fruits.     It  is  therefore  expected  of 
all  who  continue  therein,  that  they  should  continue  to 
evidence  their  desire  of  salvation, 

First,  By  doing  no  harm,  by  avoiding  evil  of  every 

*  This  part  refers  to  towns  and  cities ;  where  the  poor  are  generally 
numerous,  and  Church  expenses  considerable. 


APPENDIX.  271 

kind,  especially  that  which  is  most  generally  practiced  ; 
such  as, 

The  taking  of  the  name  of  God  in  vain. 

The  profaning  the  day  of  the  Lord,  either  by  doing 
ordinary  work  therein,  or  by  buying  or  selling. 

Drunkenness,  buying  or  selling  spirituous  liquors,  or 
drinking  them,  unless  in  cases  of  extreme  necessity. 

Slaveholding  ;  buying  or  selling  slaves. 

Fighting,  quarreling,  brawling,  brother  going  to  law 
with  brother  ;  returning  evil  for  evil ;  or  railing  for  rail 
ing  ;  the  using  many  words  in  buying  or  selling. 

The  buying  or  selling  goods  that  have  not  paid  the 
duty. 

The  giving  or  taking  things  on  usury,  that  is,  unlaw 
ful  interest. 

Uncharitable  or  unprofitable  conversation ;  particu 
larly  speaking  evil  of  magistrates  or  of  ministers. 

Doing  to  others  as  we  would  not  they  should  do 
unto  us. 

Doing  what  we  know  is  not  for  the  glory  of  God  ;  as, 

The  putting  on  of  gold  and  costly  apparel. 

The  taking  such  diversions  as  cannot  be  used  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

The  singing  those  songs,  or  reading  those  books, 
which  do  not  tend  to  the  knowledge  or  love  of  God. 

Softness  and  needless  self-indulgence. 

Laying  up  treasure  upon  earth. 

Borrowing  without  a  probability  of  paying  ;  or  taking 
up  goods  without  a  probability  of  paying  for  them. 

(5)  It  is  expected  of  all  who  continue  in  these  so 
cieties,  that  they  should  continue  to  evidence  their  desire 
of  salvation, 

Secondly,  By  doing  good;   by  being  in   every  kind 


272        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

merciful  after  their  power ;  as  they  have  opportunity, 
doing  good  of  every  possible  sort,  and,  as  far  as  pos 
sible,  to  all  men. 

To  their  bodies,  of  the  ability  which  God  giveth,  by 
giving  food  to  the  hungry,  by  clothing  the  naked,  by 
visiting  or  helping  them  that  are  sick  or  in  prison. 

To  their  souls,  by  instructing,  reproving,  or  exhorting 
all  we  have  any  intercourse  with ;  trampling  under  foot 
that  enthusiastic  doctrine,  that  "  we  are  not  to  do  good 
unless  our  hearts  be  free  to  it." 

By  doing  good,  especially  to  them  that  are  of  the 
household  of  faith,  or  groaning  so  to  be  ;  employing  them 
preferably  to  others;  buying  one  of  another;  helping 
each  other  in  business ;  and  so  much  the  more  because 
the  world  will  love  its  own,  and  them  only. 

By  all  possible  diligence  and.  frugality,  that  the  Gos 
pel  be  not  blamed. 

By  running  with  patience  the  race  which  is  set  before 
them,  denying  themselves,  and  taking  up  their  cross 
daily;  submitting  to  bear  the  reproach  of  Christ,  to  be 
as  the  filth  and  offscouring  of  the  world ;  and  looking 
that  men  should  say  all  manner  of  evil  of  them  falsely 
for  the  Lord's  sake. 

(6)  It  is  expected  of  all  who  desire  to  continue  in 
these  societies,  that  they  should  continue  to  evidence 
their  desire  of  salvation, 

Thirdly,  By  attending  upon  all  the  ordinances  of  God  : 
such  are, 

The  public  worship  of  God  : 

The  ministry  of  the  word,  either  read  or  expounded : 

The  Supper  of  the  Lord  : 

Family  and  private  prayer : 

Searching  the  Scriptures ;  and 


APPENDIX.  273 

Fasting  or  abstinence. 

(7)  These  are  the  general  rules  of  our  societies ;  all 
which  we  are  taught  of  God  to  observe,  even  in  his 
written  word,  which  is  the  only  rule,  and  the  sufficient 
rule,  both  of  our  faith  and  practice.  And  all  these  we 
know  his  Spirit  writes  on  truly  awakened  hearts.  If 
there  be  any  among  us  who  observe  them  not,  who 
habitually  break  any  of  them,  let  it  be  known  unto  them 
who  watch  over  that  soul  as  they  who  must  give  an 
account.  We  will  admonish  him  of  the  error  of  his 
ways.  We  will  bear  with  him  for  a  season.  But  if 
then  he  repent  not,  he  hath  no  moro  place  among  us. 
We  have  delivered  our  own  souls. 

18 


APPENDIX.  275 


No.  II. 

ARTICLES   OF   RELIGION. 
I.  OF  FAITH  IN  THE  HOLT  TRINITY. 

THERE  is  but  one  living  and  true  God,  everlasting, 
without  body  or  parts,  of  infinite  power,  wisdom,  and 
goodness ;  the  maker  and  preserver  of  all  things,  visible 
and  invisible.  And  in  unity  of  this  Godhead,  there  are 
three  persons,  of  one  substance,  power,  and  eternity,  the 
Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost. 

II.    OF   THE    WORD,    OR     SON    OF    GOD,    WHO   WAS    MADE 
VERY   MAN. 

The  Son,  who  is  the  Word  of  the  Father,  the  very 
and  eternal  God,  of  one  substance  with  the  Father,  took 
man's  nature  in  the  womb  of  the  blessed  virgin  ;  so  that 
two  whole  and  perfect  natures,  that  is  to  say,  the  God 
head  and  manhood,  were  joined  together  in  one  person, 
never  to  be  divided,  whereof  is  one  Christ,  very  God  and 
very  man,  who  truly  suffered,  was  crucified,  dead  and 
buried,  to  reconcile  his  Father  to  us,  and  to  be  a  sacri 
fice,  not  only  for  original  guilt,  but  also  for  actual  sins 
of  men. 

III.  OF  THE  RESURRECTION  OF  CHRIST. 

Christ  did  truly  rise  again  from  the  dead,  and  took 
again  his  body,  with  all  things  appertaining  to  the  per 
fection  of  man's  nature,  wherewith  he  ascended  into 


276        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 

heaven,  and  there  sitteth  until  he  return  to  judge  all  men 
at  the  last  day. 

IV.  OF  THE  HOLY  GHOST. 

The  Holy  Ghost,  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the 
Son,  is  of  one  substance,  majesty,  and  glory  with  tho 
Father  and  the  Son,  very  and  eternal  God. 

V.  THE   SUFFICIENCY  OF   THE   HOLY  SCEIPTUEES   FOB 
SALVATION. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  contain  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation ;  so  that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein,  nor 
may  be  proved  thereby,  is  not  to  be  required  of  any 
man,  that  it  should  be  believed  as  an  article  of  faith,  or 
be  thought  requisite  or  necessary  to  salvation.  In  the 
name  of  the  Holy  Scripture,  we  do  understand  those 
canonical  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  of 
whose  authority  was  never  any  doubt  in  the  Church. 

THE  NAMES  OP  THE  CANONICAL  BOOKS. 

Genesis,  The  First  Book  of  Chronicles, 

Exodus,  The  Second  Book  of  Chronicles, 

Leviticus,  The  Book  of  Ezra, 

Numbers,  *  The  Book  of  Nehemiah, 

Deuteronomy,  The  Book  of  Esther, 

Joshua,  The  Book  of  Job, 

Judges,  The  Psalms, 

Ruth.  The  Proverbs, 

The  First  Book  of  Samuel,-  Ecclesiastes,  or  the  Preacher, 

The  Second  Book  of  Samuel,  Cantica,  or  Songs  of  Solomon, 

The  First  Book  of  Kings,  Four  Prophets  the  greater, 

The  Second  Book  of  Kings,  Twelve  Prophets  the  less : 

All  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  as  they  are  com 
monly  received,  we  do  receive  and  account  canonical. 


APPENDIX.  277 


VI.  Or  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

The  Old  Testament  is  not  contrary  to  the  New ;  for 
both  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament  everlasting  life  is 
offered  to  mankind  by  Christ,  who  is  the  only  Mediator 
between  God  and  man,  being  both  God  and  man. 
"Wherefore  they  are  not  to  be  heard  who  feign  that  the 
old  fathers  did  look  only  for  transitory  promises.  Al 
though  the  law  given  from  God  by  Moses,  as  touching 
ceremonies  and  rites,  doth  not  bind  Christians,  nor  ought 
the  civil  precepts  thereof  of  necessity  be  received  in  any 
commonwealth  ;  yet,  notwithstanding,  no  Christian  what 
soever  is  free  from  the  obedience  of  the  commandments 
which  are  called  moral. 


VII.  OF  ORIGINAL  OR  BIRTH  SIN. 

Original  sin  standeth  not  in  the  following  of  Adam, 
(as  the  Pelagians  do  vainly  talk,)  but  it  is  the  corruption 
of  the  nature  of  every  man,  that  naturally  is  engendered 
of  the  offspring  of  Adam,  whereby  man  is  very  far  gone 
from  original  righteousness,  and  of  his  own  nature  in 
clined  to  evil,  and  that  continually. 

VIII.  OP  FREE  WILL. 

The  condition  of  man  after  the  fall  of  Adam  is  such, 
that  he  cannot  turn  and  prepare  himself,  by  his  own  nat 
ural  strength  and  works,  to  faith,  and  calling  upon  God ; 
wherefore  we  have  no  power  to  do  good  works,  pleasant 
and  acceptable  to  God,  without  the  grace  of  God  by 
Christ  preventing  us,  that  we  may  have  a  good  will,  and 
working  with  us,  when  we  have  that  good  will. 


278        CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 


IX.  OF  THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  MAN. 

We  are  accounted  righteous  before  God,  only  for  the 
merit  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  by  faith, 
and  not  for  our  own  works  or  deservings.  Wherefore, 
that  we  are  justified  by  faith  only,  is  a  most  wholesome 
doctrine,  and  very  full  of  comfort. 

X.  OF  GOOD  WORKS. 

Although  good  works,  which  are  the  fruits  of  faith, 
and  follow  after  justification,  cannot  put  away  our  sins, 
and  endure  the  severity  of  God's  judgments  ;  yet  are 
they  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  in  Christ,  and 
spring  out  of  a  true  and  lively  faith,  insomuch  that  by 
them  a  lively  faith  may  be  as  evidently  known  as  a  tree 
is  discerned  by  its  fruit. 

XI.  OF  WORKS  OF  SUPEREROGATION. 

Voluntary  works,  besides,  over,  and  above  God's 
commandments,  which  are  called  works  of  supereroga 
tion,  cannot  be  taught  without  arrogancy  and  impiety. 
For  by  them  men  do  declare  that  they  do  not  only  ren 
der  unto  God  as  much  as  they  are  bound  to  do,  but  that 
they  do  more  for  his  sake  than  of  bounden  duty  is  re 
quired  :  wrhereas  Christ  saith  plainly,  When  ye  have 
done  all  that  is  commanded  you,  say,  We  are  unprofita 
ble  servants. 

XII.  OF  SIN  AFTER  JUSTIFICATION. 

Not  every  sin  willingly  committed  after  justification 
is  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  unpardonable. 
Wherefore,  the  grant  of  repentance  is  not  to  be  denied 


APPENDIX.  279 

to  such  as  fall  into  sin  after  justification ;  after  we  have 
received  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  may  depart  from  grace 
given,  and  fall  into  sin,  and,  by  the  grace  of  God,  rise 
again  and  amend  our  lives.  And  therefore  they  are  to 
be  condemned  who  say  they  can  no  more  sin  as  long  as 
they  live  here ;  or  deny  the  place  of  forgiveness  to  such 
as  truly  repent. 

XIII.  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

The  visible  Church  of  Christ  is  a  congregation  of 
faithful  men,  in  which  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 
and  the  sacraments  duly  administered,  according  to 
Christ's  ordinance,  in  all  those  things  that  of  necessity 
are  requisite  to  the  same. 

XIV.    OF   PURGATORY. 

The  Romish  doctrine  concerning  purgatory,  pardon, 
worshiping,  and  adoration,  as  well  of  images  as  of  relics, 
and  also  invocation  of  saints,  is  a  fond  thing,  vainly 
invented,  and  grounded  upon  no  warrant  of  Scripture, 
but  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God. 

XV.  OF  SPEAKING  IN  THE  CONGREGATION  IN  SUCH  A 
TONGUE  AS  THE  PEOPLE  UNDERSTAND. 

It  is  a  thing  plainly  repugnant  to  the  word  of  God, 
and  the  custom  of  the  primitive  Church,  to  have  public 
prayer  in  the  Church,  or  to  minister  the  sacraments,  in  a 
tongue  not  understood  by  the  people. 

XVI.  OF  THE  SACRAMENTS. 

Sacraments,  ordained  of  Christ,  are  not  only  badges 
or  tokens  of  Christian  men's  profession  ;  but  rather  they 


280        CENTENARY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

are  certain  signs  of  grace,  and  God's  good  will  toward 
us,  by  the  which  he  doth  work  invisibly  in  us,  and  doth 
not  only  quicken,  but  also  strengthen  and  confirm  our 
faith  in  him. 

There  are  two  sacraments  ordained  of  Christ  our  Lord 
in  the  Gospel ;  that  is  to  say,  Baptism  and  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord. 

Those  five  commonly  called  sacraments,  that  is  to  say, 
confirmation,  penance,  orders,  matrimony,  and  extreme 
unction,  are  not  to  be  counted  for  sacraments  of  the 
Gospel,  being  such  as  have  partly  grown  out  of  the  cor- 
rupt  following  of  the  apostles  ;  and  partly  are  states  of 
life  allowed  in  the  Scriptures,  but  yet  have  not  the  like 
nature  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper,  because  they 
have  not  any  visible  sign  or  ceremony  ordained  of  God. 

The  sacraments  were  not  ordained  of  Christ  to  be 
gazed  upon,  or  to  be  carried  about ;  but  that  we  should 
duly  use  them.  And  in  such  only  as  worthily  receive 
the  same,  they  have  a  wholesome  effect  or  operation ; 
but  they  that  receive  them  unworthily,  purchase  to 
themselves  condemnation,  as  St.  Paul  saith.  1  Cor.  xi,  29. 

XVII.  OF  BAPTISM. 

Baptism  is  not  only  a  sign  of  profession,  and  mark  of 
difference,  whereby  Christians  are  distinguished  from 
others  that  are  not  baptized  ;  but  it  is  also  a  sign  of  re 
generation,  or  the  new  birth.  The  baptism  of  young 
children  is  to  be  retained  in  the  Church. 

XVIII.  OF  THE  LORD'S  SUPPER. 

The  Supper  of  the  Lord  is  not  only  a  sign  of  the  love 
that  Christians  ought  to  have  among  themselves  one  to 


APPENDIX.  281 

another,  but  rather  is  a  sacrament  of  our  redemption  by 
Christ's  death  ;  insomuch  that,  to  such  as  rightly,  wor 
thily,  and  with  faith  receive  the  same,  the  bread  which  we 
break  is  a  partaking  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  and  like 
wise  the  cfip  of  blessing  is  a  partaking  of  the  blood  of 
Christ. 

Transubstantiation,  or  the  change  of  the  substance  of 
bread  and  wine  in  the  Supper  of  our  Lord,  cannot  be 
proved  by  Holy  Writ,  but  is  repugnant  to  the  plain 
words  of  Scripture,  overthroweth  the  nature  of  a  sacra 
ment,  and  hath  given  occasion  to  many  superstitions. 

The  body  of  Christ  is  given,  taken,  and  eaten  in  the 
Supper,  only  after  a  heavenly  and  spiritual  manner. 
And  the  means  whereby  the  body  of  Christ  is  received 
and  eaten  in  the  Supper,  is  faith. 

The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  not  by 
Christ's  ordinance  reserved,  carried  about,  lifted  up,  or 
worshiped. 

XIX.  OF  BOTH  KINDS. 

The  cup  of  the  Lord  is  not  to  be  denied  to  the  lay 
people ;  for  both  the  parts  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  by 
Christ's  ordinance  and  commandment,  ought  to  be  ad 
ministered  to  all  Christians  alike. 

XX.  OF  THE  ONE  OBLATION  OF  CHRIST,  FINISHED  UPON 
THE  CROSS. 

The  offering  of  Christ,  once  made,  is  that  perfect  re 
demption,  propitiation,  and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world,  both  original  and  actual ;  and  there 
is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin  but  that  alone.  Where 
fore  the  sacrifice  of  masses,  in  the  which  it  is  commonly 


282        CENTENARY  OF  AMEEICAN  METHODISM. 

said  that  the  priest  doth  offer  Christ  for  the  quick  and 
the  dead,  to  have  remission  of  pain  or  guilt,  is  a  blas 
phemous  fable,  and  dangerous  deceit. 

XXI.  OF  THE  MARRIAGE  OF  MINISTERS. 

The  ministers  of  Christ  are  not  commanded  by  God's 
law  either  to  vow  the  estate  of  single  life,  or  to  abstain 
from  marriage  :  therefore  it  is  lawful  for  them,  as  for  all 
other  Christians,  to  marry  at  their  own  discretion,  as 
they  shall  judge  the  same  to  serve  best  to  godliness. 

XXII.  OF  THE  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES  OF  CHURCHES. 

It  is  not  necessary. that  rites  and  ceremonies  should  in 
all  places  be  the  same,  or  exactly  alike ;  for  they  have 
been  always  different,  and  may  be  changed  according  to 
the  diversity  of  countries,  times,  and  men's  manners,  so 
that  nothing  be  ordained  against  God's  word.  Whoso 
ever,  through  his  private  judgment,  willingly  and  pur 
posely  doth  openly  break  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  to  which  he  belongs,  which  are  not  repugnant 
to  the  word  of  God,  and  are  ordained  and  approved  by 
common  authority,  ought  to  be  rebuked  openly,  that 
others  may  fear  to  do  the  like,  as  one  that  offendeth 
against  the  common  order  of  the  Church,  and  woundeth 
the  consciences  of  weak  brethren. 

Every  particular  Church  may  ordain,  change,  or  abol 
ish  rites  and  ceremonies,  so  that  all  things  may  be  done 
to  edification. 

XXIII.  OF  THE  RULERS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF 
AMERICA. 

The  president,  the  congress,  the  general  assemblies, 
the  governors,  and  the  councils  of  state,  as  the  delegates 


APPENDIX.  283 

of  the  people,  are  the  rulers  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  according  to  the  division  of  power  made  to 
them  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  by 
the  constitutions  of  their  respective  states.  And  the 
said  states  are  a  sovereign  and  independent  nation,  and 
ought  not  to  be  subject  to  any  foreign  jurisdiction.* 

XXIV.  OF  CHRISTIAN  MEN'S  GOODS. 

The  riches  and  goods  of  Christians  are  not  common, 
as  touching  the  right,  title,  and  possession  of  the  same, 
as  some  do  falsely  boast.  Notwithstanding,  every  man 
ought,  of  such  things  as  he  possesseth,  liberally  to  give 
alms  to  the  poor,  according  to  his  ability. 

XXY.  OF  A  CHRISTIAN  MAN'S  OATH. 

As  we  confess  that  vain  and  rash  swearing  is  forbidden 
Christian  men  by  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  James  his 
apostle ;  so  we  judge  that  the  Christian  religion  doth 
not  prohibit,  but  that  a  man  may  swear  when  the  magis 
trate  requireth,  in  a  cause  of  faith  and  charity,  so  it  be 
done  according  to  the  prophet's  teaching,  in  justice, 
judgment,  and  truth. 

9  As  far  as  it  respects  civil  affairs,  we  believe  it  the  duty  of  Chris 
tians,  and  especially  all  Christian  ministers,  to  be  subject  to  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  country  where  they  may  reside,  and  to  use  all  lauda 
ble  means  to  enjoin  obedience  to  the  powers  that  be  ;  and  therefore  it 
is  expected  that  all  our  preachers  and  people,  who  may  be  under  the 
British  or  any  other  government,  will  behave  themselves  as  peaceable 
and  orderly  subjects. 


284        CENTENAKY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 


No.  III. 

CENSUS  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

(BY   STATES.)      FKOM  THE  MINUTES  OB1   1864. 


STATES  &  TERRITORIES. 

Members  & 
Probat'rs. 

Preach- 

Churches. 

Value  of  Church 
Property.t 

Sunday- 
schools. 

S.  S. 
Scholars. 

Arkansas  

249 

1 

1 

60 

California  . 

4,179 

77 

82 

$341  087 

112 

5  674 

Colorado  Territory  
Connecticut  

287 
18,150 

6 

117 

1 

171 

2,500 
808,000 

9 
169 

409 
13  305 

Delaware  

12,289 

22 

119 

203  225 

125 

8  792 

District  of  Columbia  .  .  . 

3,534 
87  961 

14 

548 

16 
896 

148,700 
2  147  185 

18 
1  422 

2,802 
83  914 

Indiana  

86,399 

499 

1  160 

2  134  160 

1  162 

66  984 

Iowa  .... 

37,599 

266 

271 

528  525 

675 

36  105 

Kansas  

5,462 

57 

34 

53640 

104 

3  907 

2  677 

38 

53  320 

28 

1  695 

Maine 

22  978 

170 

198| 

522  937 

268 

16  216 

Maryland  

45  987 

168 

514 

1  128  345 

415 

26  805 

Massachusetts  
Michigan  

30,185 
31,434 

230 
273 

226 
260 

1,672,425 
789  450 

250 
713 

33,195 
34  841 

Minnesota 

7,681 

89 

70 

94275 

180 

6  449 

Missouri  
Nebraska  

9,259 
1,829 

63 

27 

79 
12 

199,485 
23  500 

80 
37 

4,592 
1  449 

Nevada  Territory  
New  Hampshire  .... 

271 

10051 

13 

87 

4 
90 

60,700 
268  450 

10 
110 

388 
10  Ol>5 

45  307 

237 

380 

1  702  6°5 

514 

43  706 

New  York 

159  342 

1  101 

1  598| 

5  948  028 

Ohio  

121,376 

592 

1  858A 

3  273  031 

1  847 

125  467 

Oregon  .... 

2  629 

30 

30 

66  650 

45 

2  017 

Pennsylvania  

104,765 

619 

1  148 

8  134  710 

1  485 

115  472 

Ehode  Island  

3225 

20 

20 

185  200 

23 

8  932 

Vermont  

14  444 

135 

170J- 

385  37*) 

208 

13  766 

868 

7 

14 

57  000 

10 

Washington  Territory.. 
West  Virginia  

278 
15,033 

9 

74 

4 
223 

10,100 
201  475 

8 
174 

890 
8  829 

Wisconsin  
Total 

23,161 

239 

234 

469,980 

540 

26,335 

» Including  those  on  trial  and  excluding  superannuates,     t  Including  parsonages. 


APPENDIX. 


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286 


CENTENARY  OF  AMERICAN  METHODISM. 


SEMINARIES,  FEMALE  COLLEGES,  AND  ACADEMIES. 


Name. 

Location. 

Principal. 

1* 

Students. 

Male. 

Fern. 

Amcnifi  Seminary 

Amenia,  N.  Y... 

N.  G.  Spalding,  A.M... 

7 

121 

96 

Baltimore  Female  College. 

Baltimore,  Md.. 

N.C.  Brooks,  LL.D.... 

12 

M 

120 

Battle  Ground  Institute... 

BattleGr'nd.Ind. 

D.  Holmes,  D.D  

6 

164 

130 

Beaver  Female  Sera.  &  \ 
Musical  Institute  J 

Beaver,  Pa  

R.  T.Taylor,  A.M  

14 

54 

260 

Bordentown  Female  Col.  .  . 

Bordentown,N.J 

J.  II.  Brakeley,  A.M... 

12 

147 

Brookville  College  .... 

Brookville,  Ind. 

W.  R.  Goodwin,  A.M.. 

5 

50 

90 

Brunson  Institute 

Point  Bluff  Wis. 

G.  W  Case   A.B... 

78 

107 

Central  Ohio  Conf.  Sem.... 

Maumee  City,  0. 

T.  M.  Searles,  A.B.... 

3 

18 

22 

Church  Hill  Institute  

New  Canaan  Ct. 

j   L  Gilder   A  M 

3 

20 

Q 

Clark  Seminary 

Aurora   Illinois 

G.  W.  Quereau,  A.M. 

9 

166 

166 

Coolville  Seminary  

Coolville,  Ohio.! 

J'P  Spahr 

2 

31 

51 

Cumberland  Valley  Instil. 

Mechanicsb'g,Pa 

Oliver  Ege  &  Sons  

3 

80 

Dansville  Seminary  

Dansville,  N.  Y.. 

Joseph  Jones,  A.B.  .... 

G 

114 

117 

Danville  Academy  

Danville  Ind. 

0.  H.  Smith,  A.M  

4 

116 

93 

Danville  Seminary  

Danville',  III  .  '.  '. 

H.  L.  Dickinson,  A.B.I 

5 

80 

120 

Des  Moines  Con.  Seminary. 

Indianola,  Iowa. 

Orlando  H.  Baker,  A.M. 

4 

50 

75 

East  Genesee  Conf.  Sem.  .  . 

Ovid,  N.  Y. 

J.  J.  Brown,  A.M  

6 

76 

90 

East  Maine  Coiif.  Seminary 

Bucksport,  Me.. 

Jas.  B.  Crawford,  A.M.. 

6 

180 

195 

Eau  Claire  Wesleyan  Sem. 

Eau  Claire,  Wis. 

S.  M.  White,  B.A  

3 

80 

56 

Emorv  Fern.  College  

Carlisle,  Pa  

R.  D.  Chambers,  A.  M. 

4 

20 

Epworth  Seminary 

Epworth    Iowa 

R.  W.  Keeler,  A.  M  .... 

4 

60 

70 

Evansville  Seminary  

Evansville  Wis. 

H  Colman  A  M 

Q 

98 

152 

Falley  Seminary  

Fulton,  N.  Y.... 

J.  P.  Griffin,  A.M.... 

10 

239 

235 

"»•%  Female  Collegiate  Institute 

Santa  Clara,  Cal 

D.  Tuthill,  A.M  

9 

67 

Fort  Edward  Institute  

Ft.  Edward,  N.Y. 

Joseph  E.  King,  D.D.. 

16 

368 

197 

Ft.PlainSem.&Fem.Col.In. 

Fort  Plain,  N.Y. 

B.  I.  Diefendorf,  A.M.. 

5 

103 

107 

Fort  Wayne  College  

Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 

R.  D.  Robinson,  A.M.  .. 

67 

106 

Genesee  Wesleyan  Sem  — 

Lima,  New  York 

C.  W.  Bennett,  A.M... 

10 

248 

366 

Gouverneur  Wesleyan  Sem. 

Gouverneur,  N.Y 

George  G.  Dains,  A.M. 

6 

107 

178 

Grand  Prairie  Seminary  .  . 

Onarga,  111  

W.  Taplin,  A.B  

6 

149 

87 

Hedding  Sem'y  &  Central  ) 
Illinois  Female  College  j 

Abingdon,  111... 

John  T.  Dickinson,  A.M. 

5 

100 

101 

Hillsborough  Female  Col.. 

Hillsborough,  O. 

A.  T.  Thompson  

10 

... 

210 

Illinois  Female  College  — 

Jacksonville,  111. 

Charles  Adams,  D.D.  .  . 

12 

... 

230 

Irving  Female  College  — 

Mechanicsb'h.Pa 

A.  G.  Marlatt,  A.M.... 

5 

... 

72 

Joucsvillc  Ac<MlGiny  

Jones  ville,  N.Y. 

Fenner  E.  King,  A.M.  . 

Q 

56 

40 

Maine  Wesleyan  Semin'y  j 
and  Female  College  .  .  ) 

Readfield,  Maine 

H.P.  Torsey,  LL.D... 

9 

754 

845 

Middlet'n  In.  &  Prep.  Sch'l. 

Middletown,  Ct. 

Daniel  H.  Chase,  LL.D. 

8 

89 

Moore's  Hill  Collegiate  In.  . 

Moore's  Hil),Ind. 

J.  A.  Beswick,  A.M.... 

6 

45 

55 

Morgantown  Fern.  Col.  In.. 

Morgantown,  Va. 

T.Dougherty,  A.M.... 

6 

... 

80 

-**  Napa  Collegiate  Institute.. 

Napa  City,  Cal.. 

W.  S.  Turner,  A.M.... 

5 

45 

Newbury  Seminary  and  ) 
Female  Collegiate  In.  .  J 

Newbury,  Vt.... 

George  C.  Smith,  A.M. 

8 

189 

242 

N.  H.'Conf.  Sem.cfc  Fem.Col. 

Sanb'n  Br.,  N.  H. 

Henry  Lummis,  A.M.. 

7 

116 

146 

New  York  Conf.  Sem.  and  ) 
Female  Col.  Institute  .  j 

Charlot'v'e.N.Y. 

S.  G.  Gale,  A.M  

9 

90 

70 

Northwestern  FemaleCol.  . 

Evanston,  111..  .. 

L.  H.  Bugbee,  M.A.... 

7 

100 

APPENDIX. 


287 


SEMINARIES,  PEMALE  COLLEGES,  AND  ACADEMIES.-CONTINUED. 


Name. 

Location. 

• 
Principal. 

Instruct- 
on. 

Students. 
MaleJ  Fern. 

Ohio  Wesleyan  Female  CoL 
Olney  Male  and  Fern.  Col.. 
Oneida  Conf.  Seminary.  .  .  . 

Pennington  Seminary  &  \ 
Female  Col.  Institute,  j 
Perry  Academy  

Delaware,  Ohio. 
Olney,  Illinois.. 
Cazenovia,  N.  Y. 

Penningt'n,  N.J. 

Perry,  N.  Y  
Pittsburgh,  Pa.. 
Portland,Oregon 

E.Greenw'h.R.I 

Poultney,  Vt  
Rockport,  Ind... 
Mt.  Morris,  111.. 

Lebanon,  Oregon 
Salem,  Illinois.. 
SpringMount.,O. 
Springfield.Ohio. 

Springfield,  Vt.  . 

Springville,  N.Y. 
Stockton,  Cal... 
Stockwell,  Ind.. 

Thorn  town,  Ind. 
Wilbur,  Oregon. 

Waterloo,  Wis.. 
Wesley,  Ind  
Wilbraham,Mass 
Cincinnati,  Ohio 
Wilmington.Del. 
W.Farmingt'n.O 
West  River,  Md. 
Centerville,  Ind. 
Williamsport,Pa. 
Willoughby,  O. 
Kingston,  Pa  — 

Xeuia,  Ohio  

Park  8.  Donelson,  D.D. 
Nelson  Hawley 

10 
5 
9 

9 

5 
22 
5 

12 

11 
5 

6 

5 
•5 
1 
6 

10 

6 
5 
4 

5 
4 

4 
3 
10 
15 
11 
8 
3 
6 
10 
9 
15 

9 

'?3 

278 

135 
92 

i29 
164 

*85 
162 

65 
*30 

105 

100 
21 

77 

124 
60 

48 
97 
286 

120 
75 

311 
73 
290 

37 

306 
77 
257 

51 

99 
419 
115 

168 

208 
90 
128 

40 
152 
39 
114 

271 

118 
53 
92 

157 

50 

67 
59 
232 
131 
165 
156 

204 

isi 

260 
192 

A.  S.  Graves,  A.M  

D.  C.  Knowles,  A.M... 

M.  R.  Atkins,  A.M... 
I.  C.  Pershing,  D.D  
0.  8.  Frambes,  A.M... 

J.  T.  Edwards,  A.M... 

John  Newman,  D.D... 
William  S.Hooper.A.M. 
W.  T.  Harlow,  A.M.  .  .  . 

L.  T.  Woodward,  A.M. 
M.  H.  Corrington,  A.M. 
J.  B.  Selby  

Pittsburgh  Female  College 
Portland  Academy  
Providence  Conf.  Sem.  &  \ 
Musical  Institute  J 

Ripley  Female  College  
Rockport  Collegiate  Instil. 
Rock  River  Seminary  

Santiam  Academy.  .  . 

S.  Illinois  Female  College.  . 
Spring  Mountain  Acad'y.. 
Springfield  Female  College. 
Springfield  Wes.  Sem'ary  ) 
and  Female  Col.  Instit.  J 
Springville  Academy  
Stockton  Female  Institute  . 
Stockwell  Colleg.  Institute 

J.  H.  Herron,  A.M  
A.  M.  Wheeler,  A.  M... 

David  Copeland,  A.M.  . 
H.  W.  Hunt,  A.M  
H.  G.  Jackson,  A.B.  .  .  . 

0.  H.  Smith,  A.M  
T.  F.  Eoyal..  . 

Umpqua  Academy  

Waterloo  Academy  .... 

"Wesley  Academy  
Wesleyan  Academy.  ,  

J.  H.  and  A.  Orear  
Edward  Cooke,  D.D.. 
Richard  S.  Rust,  D.D 
John  Wilson,  A.M... 
J.  M.  Leonard,  A.M. 
R.  G.  Chaney,  A.M.. 
W.  H.  Barnes,  A.M.  .   . 
T.  Mitchell,  D.D  

Wesleyan  Female  College. 
Wesleyan  Female  College.  . 
Western  Reserve  Seminary 
West  River  Classical  Instit. 
Whitewater  College  
Williamsp'tDickinsonSem. 
Willoughby  Collegiate  Inst. 
Wyoming  Seminary  

J.  B.  Robinson,  A.M... 
Reuben  Nelson,  D.D.. 

William  Smith,  A.M.. 

Xenia  Female  College  

SCMMABY.— TWENTY-THBEE  Colleges,  TWO  Biblical  Institutes,  and  SEVENTY-SEVEN 
Seminaries,  Female  Colleges,  and  Academies.    These  tables  are  very  deficient. 


THE  END. 


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